Bold supermarket theft: nonresponse shocks witness

AUCKLAND: A man who stole a trolley full of groceries from a supermarket this week casually walked out with the goods, brazenly telling staff he was not going to pay for them.

A witness to the supermarket theft at Countdown Meadowbank, in Auckland, said staff chose not to restrain the man after confronting him about the nonpayment.

The witness watched in shock as the man, aged 2530, simply left the store without paying.

‘‘I heard one of the staff say to him, ‘you have not paid for those’ and the response from the thief was, ‘I’m not going to.’

‘‘And he boldly walked out. He did not run; he walked. He appeared confident and relaxed. Obviously an experienced supermarket thief.’’ .

At first, the witness was stunned supermarket workers did not do more to stop the man from leaving, but in hindsight he understood their reluctance.

‘‘At the time I found the response to this incident from supermarket management frustrating, but on reflection, what can they do?

‘‘There is always the huge fear that a person like this could have a weapon, and if he had been physically challenged the outcome could have been disastrous.’’

Police arrived about minutes after the man left.

Police have been approached for an update.

Earlier this year, Countdown 10 corporate affairs manager Kiri Hannifin said staff had suffered an increasing amount of abuse.

Thursday’s theft was an unfortunate reality for a chain of stores that ‘‘served more than three million customers a week across Aotearoa’’.

‘‘The vast majority of our customers are honest. Unfortunately, theft is a reality in retail from time to time and we have a number of security measures in place to detect and prevent shoplifting.

‘‘These include CCTV, security tags on certain items, supervisors at checkouts, and security guards at a number of our stores,’’ she said.