The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Fighting a Continual battle
With shoplifting so prevalent across Courier Country, we sent our undercover man, Graeme Bletcher, into Brechin Castle Centre to see if he can get away with it. Also, in day two of our special investigation, we examine the personal toll crime has taken on
THE MISSION is simple — get in, get out, try not to get caught.
I meet managing director of Brechin Castle Centre, Yvonne Ritchie, in the store car park to agree the rules of my shoplifting attempt.
I will target both tagged and untagged items and try to spend no longer than 10 minutes.
Prior to turning up I’m in confident mood but that quickly drains on approaching the entrance.
Although it has been approved, nerves are kicking in, not because I’m about to break the law, more a sense of anticipation.
I enter the gift shop and receive a cheery greeting from a worker stocking the shelves.
For the first 30 seconds it’s a fog — my mind is buzzing over the situation and not the matter in hand.
The main body of the store is pretty quiet but staff seem to be everywhere.
I’m walking too quickly and with no real purpose so I stop at the food section to get composed. Too many folk around so I move on to circle the store realising this will not be as easy as I thought.
A tasteful hipflask with a tartan pattern is my first item.
Mrs Cheery seems to have followed me through from the front (or so my mind is telling me) so I can’t bag it here.
I wander casually through the Christmas section and into clothing where I manage to tuck it in my inside pocket.
The floodgates are open now and I’m feeling that adrenaline tingle. In quick succession I bag gloves and socks and then, bizarrely, some onion marmalade.
By this point I must be looking shady. My brain is shouting “get out, they’ve rumbled you,” but I want to take some more.
AYankee Candle from the gift shop is the last swag before I prepare to make a break.
What seems like an eternity — but is probably 20 seconds — is spent loitering by the gift cards while a worker moves away from the front desk.
Here we go. I stride past a display case and through the exit but the alarm is triggered, sounding a loud honk. A worried-looking staff member scurries over and asks me to go through again.
When the lights inevitably flash a second time she is on the walkie-talkie for backup.
Retail manager Kay Barkworth arrives, as disapproving customers look on and asks me to remove my jacket. She swings it through the gates and they light up a third time.
“Can you empty your pockets please?” she asks, as manager Aileen Bennett arrives. Their faces drop while I tip out the contents of my pockets. I’m escorted through to the office where I empty everything in my jeans and shirt.
“I think we need to make a call,” Aileen says, just as Yvonne arrives on cue to call a halt.
During a debrief, she explains shoplifters often begin to plead and cry once caught.
“Most people have got a story to tell about why they have done it,” she says. “I’m delighted the staff responded so well and managed to get you.
“It has been a great test of our security system and it has shown us that we have certain areas we could tighten up on.
“People will take anything and they are not always the ones you immediately suspect. We once had somebody shoplift a charity tin down the cast of their broken leg.”