Sunny's Wanganui manager Jon Cull has added his own commentary to video footage of shoplifters in the store. Photo / Mike Tweed
Sunny's Wanganui manager Jon Cull has added his own commentary to video footage of shoplifters in the store. Photo / Mike Tweed
Variety store Sunny's Wanganui has been battling constant shoplifting in the store for the past few months, with perfume, sunglasses, thimbles, and hair products at the top of most offenders' lists.
In an attempt to identify culprits, store manager Jon Cull decided to post CCTV footage of certain incidents onsocial media accompanied by commentary from Cull himself, and his reserved, Attenborough-esque observations have proved to be a hit.
"When I started here a year ago, every time we could prove that someone had stolen something we would put their photo up on Facebook and the public would help us identify them," Cull said.
"What we started to see was those same people coming back in for another go, so we thought, 'What else could we do?'
"The first video had a guy, who was actually a regular of ours, stealing a toy horse.
"That obviously made us wonder if he'd been stealing things every time he came into the store.
"There's another one of a guy stuffing a pet mitt down his pants, and, once again, he was in a part of the store that's quite difficult to see, especially if there are other customers there."
There were 24 cameras in place throughout the Sunny's premises, Cull said, and, despite signs on the walls alerting the public to them, he said people continued to shoplift regularly from the store.
"The next video shows a teenager walking straight in and grabbing some eyelash curlers and some lip gloss, before going down the back and struggling to get the items out of their packaging for a solid five minutes.
"Once she did that she walked back up the aisle and exited the store.
Shoppers are warned of the presence of cameras inside Sunny's Wanganui. Photo / Mike Tweed
"Interestingly, after we posted the video I got a call from the information centre saying she had left her bag with them because she was from out of town, and had come back to it many times throughout that afternoon.
"Apparently she had a substantial amount of stuff, and it makes sense that she left her bag there, so she wouldn't get caught with a bag of stolen goods."
Cull said that the majority of people who shoplifted from Sunny's were younger, and that there seemed to be a "lack of respect" for shop owners in general.
"There's a real sense of entitlement, and the sad thing is that people aren't stealing things that are necessities of life.
"They're not stealing food or anything, it's just things they want."
Despite some of the stolen items not having a lot of monetary value, Cull said the store would continue to try to catch any shoplifters that entered the store.
A spokesperson for the Privacy Commission said that it might be fresh Facebook material, but it was unlikely to be good practice. Posting on Facebook doesn't seem consistent with the legitimate purpose the store has the security cameras for.
"We don't enjoy shaming people, and I guess the whole point of the videos is to raise awareness that this going on all the time, and not just to us," Cull said.
"At the moment, Sunny's will keep filing police reports and putting photos up, and, if it's appropriate, we'll put a video up too."
