Despair as brazen shoplifters hit Stratford shops – but police call on more crimes to be reported to tackle the problem

A TROLLEY overflowing with expensive goodies being wheeled out of a Stratford supermarket is not an unusual sight at this time of the year.

Shockingly, nor is it uncommon for the person doing the wheeling to be a thief. Shoplifting is a problem that one Stratford retailer described as “happening every day”.

Following last month’s Safer Business Action Week initiative, Warwickshire Police have made a flurry of arrests in what looks to be a clampdown. Last week two men were arrested in the north of the county with an audacious swag of Christmas goodies: expensive alcohol, including Grey Goose vodka and Courvoisier brandy, nutcracker decorations, scented candles, batteries and drinking glasses etched with festive robins.

While on 9th November security from a Stratford supermarket detained a man who had, according to police, “stolen around £665 worth of items before trying to make off”. It turned out he was suspected of numerous similar crimes around the county and was taken into custody.

Despite other recent successful arrests (see panel), these crimes are only the tip of a very large iceberg.