Shoplifter on CCTV

Store owner confronts thief in shop next door

A BRAZEN shoplifter caught on CCTV stealing perfume was confronted by the store owner in the shop next door the following day.

Yvonne Brown, 56, owner of Karma Jewellery in the Seagate, had captured on film a man wearing dark glasses and a cap distracting a member of staff before making off with three bottles of perfume.

Yvonne noticed that three items were unaccounted for when she entered the store in the morning before watching back the CCTV footage from the previous day.

During the two-minute raid, the thief can be seen asking the shop assistant if he can look at a number of men’s watches.

Yvonne – who will be celebrating two years in the premises in September – then came face-to-face with the shoplifter in her son’s store, Keillers China Shop.

She said: “I had noticed on Monday there were three items missing and they hadn’t been processed as sales on Sunday.

“I looked at the CCTV and could clearly see the man using the oldest trick in the book – he was distracting the staff member while placing the perfume in his bag.

“I had gone to visit my son’s store, Keillers China Shop, and incredibly the man was there wearing the same clothes with dark glasses, the hat and the distinctive pink laces in his trainers.

“I calmly approached him and wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

‘‘I advised him he had forgotten to pay for the perfume and I would show him the footage.”

The man, believed to be in his 40s, then “bolted” from the premises with Yvonne giving chase.

“I ran after him but he made off in the direction of the Murraygate,” she said.

“A few members of the public tried to catch him. We have heard he went into Caw’s pub to change his distinctive laces.”

A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘‘Inquiries are continuing into a theft by shoplifting which happened in Seagate at around 3.50pm on Sunday.”

CCTV clearly shows the thief in the Seagate shop.