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Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Children often used as pawns for shoplifters

By ROGER MORONEY
Hawkes Bay Today·
26 Jun, 2012 10:23 PM2 mins to read

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An incident at a Napier supermarket last Sunday where a woman allegedly used a child to help shoplift items is not an uncommon occurrence, Napier Police crime prevention officer Paul Miller says.

"It happens a lot," he said.

Police were called to Pak'nSave after security staff intercepted the woman, who was understood to have been shopping with a three or four-year-old child.

The woman was arrested on shoplifting charges, with police alleging she stuffed items under the youngster's clothing then tried to leave. She was scheduled to appear in the Napier District Court today.

Mr Miller said the incident was slightly out of the ordinary in that the child appeared to have become the carrier of the goods. Using youngsters and even babies in prams and pushchairs was not unusual.

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"I've come across cases where a pram has been used, but without the baby in it and other cases where there was a baby in there and items had been placed under the blankets."

He said while most store owners were now aware of the method, many shoplifters still "tried it on".

"There are shoplifters out there who will use a baby or a child as an asset to help them steal," Mr Miller said.

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Pak'nSave security manager Mike (who asked that his surname not be used), a 20-year-veteran of the job, said shoplifting across the board was constant.

"It is horrendous and some people will try anything to get stuff out of the store," he said, adding that last Sunday's incident happened despite the fact there were two uniformed police walking through the store at about the same time "to put people off shoplifting".

Like Mr Miller, he had encountered shoplifters, who he described as both opportunistic and "professional", using prams or youngsters to conceal items.

He said some filled a trolley with hundreds of dollars' worth of stock and brazenly headed for the door.

Some would even head to a checkout and then read through what appeared to be shopping notes, then casually turn and go back - as if to get something but instead aiming for a quick exit.

"It is quite regular and it's not just here," Mike said.

They will be hitting supermarkets all over. Here in Napier, Hastings, Waipukurau - it's how they live."

Hardly a day went by without a shoplifting incident.

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