When Constable Zac McKay received a report of a woman attempting to steal more than $1000 worth of goods from Mitre 10, he had one lead: a licence plate number.
The Tauranga-based officer entered the registration into police databases, and something jumped out: there seemed to be an “abnormal amount of alerts” for the black Subaru station wagon at several Bay of Plenty retail sites.
McKay contacted the stores, who looked through CCTV footage and watched as Aimee Ravenswood wandered around their stores, filling reusable shopping bags with items she had no intention of paying for.
McKay caught her in the act, over and over again.
But it all began with a single report, submitted on software platform Auror, which McKay describes as “Facebook for retailers”.
Retailers pay for the service that allows them to do “posts”, which the police can access. Ideally, they include as much information, including vehicle registrations, as they can provide.
”The only report that we had of [Ravenswood] actually stealing at the start was that Mitre 10 one,” McKay said.
Their investigation to follow the rego led to discovering thousands of dollars worth of theft that the retailers weren’t aware of.
And when McKay turned up to arrest her, he found a “considerable stack” of receipts in her handbag.
“I’ve scanned all those receipts when she’s been brought into custody and sent to them again to the stores, because part of her operation was she would purchase something to look like she was genuinely paying for something, but in her bags or on a person, she would have a lot more stuff.”
In the end, Ravenswood faced 37 charges, 35 of which were theft, one of obtaining by deception, and one of unlawful possession of a “detagger”.
The spree of offending happened between September 4, 2024, and February 21, 2025, and Ravenswood stole $6799.21 worth of goods.
She targeted some stores many times, including New World in Mount Maunganui five times, Bunnings Mount Maunganui 11 times, and Kmart Bethlehem four times.
Judge Paul Geoghegan’s written decision said that while they weren’t spontaneous thefts, neither were they particularly sophisticated.
However, the fact that she had a detagger showed a level of “sophistication and premeditation”.
The detagger found in her handbag was described by police as a “magnetic security device”, similar to ones used by stores to remove security devices from high-value items.
The judge dismissed Ravenswood’s explanation that the detagger was an innocent device used for “camping purposes”.
“I do not accept that explanation at all,” he said.
Judge Geoghegan noted that during the interview with a pre-sentence report-writer, Ravenswood had made no mention of the financial impact on the victims.
“Retailers throughout this country are plagued at present by issues related to theft, and literally millions and millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars a year are lost by retailers because of the actions of people like you.”
Ravenswood was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, but was granted leave to apply for home detention, which was granted this month.
McKay and Tauranga’s retail crime unitspend their days targeting prolific, recidivist shoplifting that, for years, did not get attention from a police force too stretched to attend such call-outs.
He said that when the team was formed in 2023, retailers had low trust and confidence in the police.
“They wouldn’t hear anything from the police in terms of, you know, we’ve locked up this person, they’ve gone to court ...” he said.
“Unfortunately, the frontline demand was the priority, and we weren’t able to get to shoplifting offending just because of the resourcing.”
Getting defendants remanded in custody was all but impossible, because they didn’t have any convictions for shoplifting that had been going unreported and unprosecuted, McKay said.
“We’ve been building a picture over the last two years of this offending because they were getting away with it in 2023 and before that ... we’ve been convicting them and dealing with them for two years, when they do get out and reoffend, we just put them before the courts ... they’ve amounted 50 previous convictions for shoplifting in the last six months.”
Day-to-day, the retail crime unit spends its time following up shoplifting reports, arresting offenders and educating retailers about how to protect themselves, ensuring they know what information the police need to catch a thief and successfully prosecute them.
The team is clear it is not targeting those who might be stealing because they’re in a state of poverty.
In those instances, police would look at alternative resolutions, and the team often deliver food boxes to people who need them.
Sergeant Catherine Allingham said they’re not sending anyone to jail for “stealing a chocolate bar”.
“We’re targeting our recidivist high-end offenders, so that’s organised crime,” she said.
She acknowledged that much of it was driven by offenders who steal to fuel drug habits.
“We’re aware that some drug dealers will put out a list to their members that they’re selling to, and [say] we want three bottles of Versace perfume ... it’s like a shopping list, effectively.”
One man they’d recently arrested had stolen $6500 of goods from Briscoes in one hit.
“Then he did it a week later for $3500, still the same Briscoes. So that’s not survival ... that’s three coffee machines.”
McKay said that when they looked at CCTV, they could see offenders looking at notes on their phones.
“Or they’ll pull out a piece of paper ... and they’ll have a list of things. Quite often, if we search a car, we’ll find ‘Under Armour clothing, size medium’, you know, or ‘shoes size 10′. It’s next-level organised.”
Allingham said one man they arrested had been on the run for a year, with 28 active charges from Auckland for shoplifting. When the Tauranga team arrested him, they charged him with a further 25.
“We’ve worked out that if he’s found guilty on just those charges ... it’ll be over $40,000 worth of harm to businesses.”
One woman who knows about the harm shoplifting can cause to businesses is Bayfair Life Pharmacy owner Amy Kluit.
After buying the business in December 2018, she got to the end of the financial year and found they’d had a stock loss of $80,000, at cost.
“The retail value of that is about $160,000-170,000. I just about lost the plot. I was like, holy heck.”
She said that with luxury perfumes and an open storefront in a mall, they were known as an “easy place to steal”.
“We would historically report shoplifting either as it was happening, or afterwards. At the time, we didn’t have security cameras in the store, and we didn’t have our security bollards, which are the things that beep.”
She said they would “hear nothing” from police, which was “super frustrating” as they’d see the same thieves returning again and again.
“But as soon as the retail crime unit came into play, I think in their first week they got four of our most prolific shoplifters.
“They literally are like my heroes,” she said, explaining the fact they will respond by email and follow up on each report has made all the difference.
“I guess your frontline cops are probably always dealing with bigger issues than a $100 bottle of fragrance that’s been stolen. The level of communication and knowing that actually someone is going to do something about it is super refreshing.”
Kluit has CCTV cameras and security bollards, which all came at a significant cost, not to mention the time she has to spend going through the CCTV footage to send to the police. She says the cost of shoplifting is much higher than just the price of the goods taken.
But the cost and effort are worth it when she has the unit ready and willing to respond.
Her stock loss is now about $10,000 a year, rather than $80,000.
“From our business point of view, [it] feels like it’s actually worth our time reporting it.”
Since the unit came into play, and her stock loss has been reduced, she’s been able to hire more staff, which also helps to deter shoplifters.
“Generally, we find if we give great customer service, that helps to eliminate a good chunk of theft. Because normally, criminals want to come in and be ignored.”
As to what typically gets stolen, Kluit says it’s usually high-value fragrances that are easy to grab.
But it’s not limited to that – one person came in and “religiously” stole spirulina tablets, even resorting to tipping the tablets into her bag when Kluit put security tags on the boxes.
One man had been seen attempting to steal a fragrance, but then tried to blame his 5-year-old son for the theft.
When Ravenswood was sentenced, police praised the work of theretail crime unit.
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said it was the result of “outstanding investigative work” on the part of Constable McKay.
“This was the result of meticulous and painstaking work by the officer in the Tauranga retail crime unit,” Chambers said.
“The exceptional work of the officer has meant a serial shoplifter has been held to account for her actions.
“It highlights the importance of monitoring and following up on what might initially seem like low-level offending.”
The retail crime unit was the first district-based unit in New Zealand and was set up in August 2023.
Since it began, it has put 867 people before the courts and filed 4419 charges, which demonstrates the amount of work being done.
“There are now retail crime units or strategies and operations running across most of the country’s police districts,” McKay said.
“This highly visible police presence is having an impact on retail theft, but we know there is still more to be done, and that is why our staff are maintaining their focus on this area.”
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.