Cameras cop shoplifters

AWALLOP around the ear after my mum discovered I’d nicked some pick ’n’ mix from Woolworths put a swift end to my youthful career as a thief. However, not everyone has had their urge to pilfer so efficaciously nipped in the bud, and shoplifting has become a multi-billion-pound scourge.

Shoplifters strike 200 times an hour and steal £2.2bn worth of stuff annually in Britain, and these days they are less likely to be clueless kids but gangs that are ever more organised and occasionally violent.

However store security staff are fighting back with gusto, as we see in SHOPLIFTERS: AT WAR WITH THE LAW (Channel 5, 9pm).

With CCTV cameras rigged up to survey nearly every inch of floor space, guards can spot shoplifters from on high and are clued up about thieves’ ploys, such as special clothing that hides stolen goods and equipment that evades security alarms. Over six episodes we watch as security staff sometimes risk their necks to apprehend thieves.

Tonight the spotlight is on Coventry’s West Orchards Shopping Centre, when guards confront some women about the suspicious protrusions under their skirts and stop another shopper who appears to have unpaid-for goods hidden in his newspaper.

There’s high drama, too, when security staff suspect they’ve made a blunder in stopping a couple outside a department store after becoming suspicious about what’s in their bag.When the couple’s tote appears to be empty, the guards panic – a so-called “false stop” can cost them their job.Wait and see what happens.

It’s fascinating to discover how closely shoppers can be monitored and how security operates.Above all, it’s immensely gratifying to see cheats getting their comeuppance.

After my tear ducts are emptied by another episode of Long Lost Family, I’m often left wondering how the reunited relatives got on in the long term. So what a godsend it is to have Davina and Nicky’s follow-up series, LONG LOST FAMILY: WHAT HAPPENED NEXT (ITV, 9pm), to fill us in.

Tonight’s catch-up is with half-siblings Geoffrey Tonks and

Barbara Jacobs, who had us weeping two years ago when they were introduced after 70 years apart. Geoffrey was a love child born to their mum, Betty, when her husband was away fighting in the war. When dad returned in 1945, he forced Betty to give Geoffrey up for adoption. Baby sister Barbara was born later and had never known of Geoffrey’s existence until she reached adulthood.

Now great friends, the septuagenarian half-siblings are given another mystery to investigate, tracing a missing sister.

It’s a rare show that can set even the stiffest upper lip aquiver but this manages it… every time.