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Aug 21, 2023

Senior citizen to supermarket thieves: ‘Buy your own food’

Anger is growing in east Auckland at the actions of brazen thieves who fill

Anger is growing in east Auckland at the actions of brazen thieves who fill supermarket trolleys with groceries and walk out without paying.

Multiple posts have appeared on community Facebook pages from witnesses to such behaviour in recent weeks.

One was from a person who said they saw a man with a "trolley load of corned beef" walk out of a local Countdown supermarket without paying.

The poster said they were "so over this entitled behaviour" and "crime is out of control in Auckland".

Another recent post was by a person who saw three people, one of whom was wearing a balaclava, who "loaded up a trolley each" at a local Countdown before walking out without paying.

When the supermarket's staff tried to stop the thieves, they were "verbally abused and threatened", the post said.

The Times has spoken to a shopper who believes she was present when two young women recently walked out of another local Countdown without paying.

The senior citizen, who wishes to remain anonymous, says she entered the supermarket behind the pair who appeared to be aged in their late teens or early 20s.

She says they walked up and down various aisles putting groceries into a trolley.

"When I got to the checkout, the operator and a couple of other customers were talking.

"One of them said, ‘they do that all the time, they do that once a week’.

"Somebody else asked, ‘what are they doing about it?’, and I asked if it was those two girls.

"The checkout operator said, ‘yes, we know them, they come in here every week and do exactly the same thing, they fill their trolley and they just walk through a checkout and go’."

The woman says she finds it "repugnant" that people would fill a trolley with food and walk out of a supermarket without paying.

"As a senior citizen who's living on a pension, I think it's a disgrace.

"These are young people who have the ability to hold down a job.

"Get out and work and buy your own food."

She wants to see more done to prevent people from stealing from supermarkets in such a brazen manner.

"I understand the supermarket is nervous about retaliation, like their staff being attacked, but if it's happening on a weekly basis surely some measures could be put in place, such as a screen or roller doors coming down.

"The police should be arresting them and charging them with theft because that's what they’re doing, they’re stealing food."

A spokesperson for Countdown says the safety and well-being of its team and communities is its "absolute priorities".

"There are a number of measures we have in place in our stores that are designed with this in mind.

"We’re always reviewing our health and safety controls to ensure we’re doing everything we can to keep our team and customers safe in our stores.

"This is a very complicated issue and we need to take great care that the potential impact of any changes to those measures is carefully considered.

"We’re also actively working with police and other retailers to develop shared solutions to the rise in retail crime and customer aggression we’re seeing."

A police spokesperson says police are anecdotally aware of videos circulating on social media depicting thefts from supermarkets, some of which are happening in the Counties Manukau East area.

"Our staff work closely with retail groups, and retailers themselves, to help prevent thefts.

"While police have an important role to play, it's not something we can combat alone.

"We rely on retailers to report thefts to us, as this enables us to put our efforts and resources into the right places."

The spokesperson says police encourage retailers to report thefts as soon as possible.

"While immediate police attendance may not be required following every report made by retailers, there are a number of avenues police take to follow up on such reports, particularly if there's relevant evidence such as CCTV footage."