Shoplifters use hammers to knock tags off booze – or burn them off with lighters

Shoplifters are using hammers to knock security tags off booze bottles.

Others brazenly burn them off with cigarette lighters. The techniques were revealed by fed-up shop staff struggling to stay ahead of the crooks. Embattled shop workers at one store say pilferers change up their tactics on an almost weekly basis in order to hoodwink and confuse staff.

Tricks of the trade include using small hammers or lighters to knock or burn security tags off pricey bottles of booze. While mothers with babies or young children stash stolen goods under prams and buggies laden with shopping bags.

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Others line trolleys with a plastic bag for life from another store before filling it with groceries, then they zip that bag up and do a second ‘dummy’ shop above it.

At the till they pay for the few items in the ‘dummy’ shop and walk out with two bags of shopping – the largest one stolen.

Even more brazen thieves employ the same trick but after zipping up the bag containing stolen groceries they approach a cashier with a single genuine item to pay for which they then hand back saying they decided not to wait as the queue was too long.

They then simply walk out with the bag of nicked goods.

Another tactic is when teams of three or more pilferers target the self service checkouts together.

One shameless crook will distract staff with a bogus query leaving the other two thieves free to pocket stolen goods and walk out.

One stressed out security guard at a budget supermarket in Croydon, south london, told us: “It is getting too much. It starts at 7am when we open up until when we close at 10pm.

“They will steal anything. Chocolate and alcohol are favourites but also fruit and veg, oranges, carrots, bananas, anything and everything.

“They use their prams and buggies to disguise a lot of thefts. They stick chocolates and bakery items in the hood of the pram and then fold it up so you can’t see it.

“It is relentless.”

The staff member added: “They target the high value alcohol products with a little hammer.

“They know how to bang the security alarm to get it to release. Then they walk out with the whiskey.

“Another tactic they employ is using a lighter to gently burn the security tag until it releases, then they can steal the wine or spirit they want.”

In November last year Lidl became the first supermarket to roll out body-worn cameras across all their stores in an attempt to clamp down on shoplifters at a cost of more than £2 million.

Chief executive Ryan McDonnell, said: “It is an industry-wide issue and the biggest concern is the impact it has on our staff too and their safety.”

Graham Wynn, Assistant Director of Business Regulation at the BRC, said: “Retail crime has been getting increasingly worse, with thieves becoming bolder and more aggressive.

“These incidents are very often the trigger to violent and abusive incidents against retail workers. It also costs retailers, and ultimately customers, £953 million a year – money that would be better spent on reducing prices for customers.

“Retailers are spending huge sums of money on crime prevention measures, but more must be done.

“We need the police to give retail crime greater prioritisation, and we also need a standalone offence for assaulting a shopworker as this will send a clear message that this behaviour will not be tolerated.”

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