Like many, I was somewhat surprised upon hearing the news of the bold and brazen theft from Meaford’s LCBO outlet earlier this month.
The fact that someone can walk into a tiny small town liquor store and walk out with $1,000 worth of product without paying for it, nor meeting any resistance, is shocking indeed, though not exactly uncommon in today’s world, particularly in larger communities.
My initial reaction upon receiving the media release from the OPP complete with a very clear photo of the suspect and another photo of the suspect’s car, along with the licence plate, was to wonder why anyone would attempt such a crime in today’s world knowing that cameras are virtually everywhere these days.
My bewilderment was short-lived however, as I recalled the number of news reports I had seen and read over the past couple of years that made it clear that the folks who engage in shoplifting have become extremely bold in recent years, while at the same time many retail companies have given direction to staff to not step in if someone, or a group of people, are stealing from their stores, but rather to let the security cameras do their job when reporting the incident to police later.
Directing retail workers to stand back and let criminals steal from their stores is quite likely the best approach, as it can help to keep workers safe, but for a Gen Xer like me, it is still a shocking thing to see or hear about as ‘back in my day’ a store clerk might have had a baseball bat handy to address the issue in the moment.
I have read many articles in recent months about the drastic increase in shoplifting incidents, and about just how bold these criminals have become in recent years in spite of cameras being everywhere. One might think that the pervasiveness of security cameras in today’s world would serve as sufficient deterrent to such crimes, but apparently they are not; they are just an inconvenience that for some is not enough of a threat to deter such thefts.
The bold and brazen shoplifter phenomenon has largely been an issue found in large cities, but it is increasingly impacting smaller rural communities like Meaford.
“Shoplifting increased 18 per cent in 2023, with 155,280 reported incidents, according to Statistics Canada. And that increase built on 2022, which saw a 31 per cent rise from the previous year,” the National Post reported in August of last year.
That National Post article also noted that a “2023 report for the U.S. Council of Criminal Justice found the median value of goods stolen by shoplifters in 2021 was US$100 and that 95 per cent of the cases studied involved one or two people.” Remember when shoplifting used to involve a pack of gum, or a bottle of soda?
A CBC report from December 2023 outlined the challenge for Winnipeg police who were targeting shoplifters after seeing a 44 percent spike in retail thefts. In just a month beginning in November 2023, Winnipeg police had arrested 151 suspected shoplifters, a staggering number.
“Police responded to 3,745 incidents of shoplifting from January to August, a 44 per cent increase compared with the same time period in 2022, officials said at a news conference,” the CBC reported. “However, more concerning is that these thieves are becoming more brazen and sometimes violent.”
Winnipeg police noted that the days of hiding an item under your jacket and subtly sneaking out of a store are long gone. Today we frequently see stories in which suspects brazenly steal hundreds, or even thousands of dollars worth of product from stores making no attempt to hide their identity, or to hide what they are up to. Often they simply march into a store, gather items to steal and walk out caring little about the store staff witnessing the crime, nor the many security cameras that capture the crimes for all to see.
Which brings me back to the recent theft from Meaford’s LCBO, where the suspect had to have known that his face would be captured by in-store security cameras yet he took no measures to conceal his identity. He had to have known that security cameras could also be present outside the store, or that staff all have phones in their pockets with high quality cameras, yet he took no measures to conceal the vehicle he was driving. He didn’t park around the corner, he parked right in the tiny LCBO parking lot. A true ‘catch me if you can’ vibe indeed.
With the extremely challenging economic times we’ve all been experiencing since the pandemic years, many are hurting financially, so it is perhaps not surprising to see a drastic increase in the number of thefts from businesses. When people are struggling, they will find a way to put food on the table, legal or not.
But to see these criminals, and that is what they are, no matter the circumstances that might have prompted the crimes, be so brazen and carefree while committing these crimes knowing that cameras are everywhere these days is shocking indeed.
As the OPP noted in their press release regarding the Meaford LCBO theft, the suspect captured by the LCBO security cameras is believed to be responsible for a number of LCBO thefts around the province, suggesting that this particular suspect might not be someone simply down on their luck, but rather a hardcore criminal, likely part of a criminal organization.
No matter the motivation of the suspect, theft is theft, and to walk into a small town liquor store making no attempt to conceal his identity, and then to walk out with $1,000 worth of product, in broad daylight, is brazen indeed.
The latest update from the OPP is that they have identified the suspect, but identifying a suspect and catching them are two different things, so the police still have some work to do.
Once caught, retail shops are no safer than they were before because there is a long line of shoplifters waiting in the wings, ready to take their own stab at fleecing retail shops seemingly without a care in the world, and certainly without fear of getting caught, cameras or not.
