ACT Policing will summons two people to court on theft and other charges after an alleged shoplifting incident in Woden Plaza yesterday (Tuesday, December 20).
Around 5.30pm yesterday while on duty in a major department store in Woden Plaza, a loss prevention officer observed a man and a heavily pregnant woman, both in their early 20s, acting suspiciously in the menswear section.
The man had been pushing a trolley with clothing items which appeared to have the security tags attached.
When the couple went to leave the store with the items a short time later, the tags were no longer visible so the loss prevention officer approached them, identified himself, and queried the items.
The man began to rapidly push the trolley to the multi-level carpark and down the vehicle ramp with the officer in pursuit, while the woman took another exit and reappeared to block the officer’s path. She then allegedly clawed at the officer’s shirt and chest, ripped off the officer’s lanyard, and bit his left arm.
The loss prevention officer lost sight of the pair as they ran off, but provided good descriptions to police, who quickly attended. The alleged shoplifters were located a short distance away in Port Jackson Circuit, Phillip. The alleged stolen property included a blue Lonsdale T-shirt and grey tracksuit pants.
Anyone who saw the incident and/or assault is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or at www.act.crimestoppers.com.au.
Violet68 said :
There’s an atrocious movie called Idiocrisy, but the first few minutes is sums up societies woes rather well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXRjmyJFzrU
All this talk of removing children from their parents, makes me wonder what might happen if you did take them and put them in “better” homes. Perhaps they would combine the strengths and resilience learned during their earlier experiences, with the benefits of a higher education, perhaps music, art classes, access to quality health services (instead of the public system). Maybe these kids would then take the place of “your” children in society? Wow, there’s a thought. I could just imagine the whingeing! That bogan kid got in to ANU but mine didn’t……That bogan kid got the job and mine didn’t……kind of makes me lol. Just face it, if the disadvantaged were advantaged……there just wouldn’t be enough advantage for YOU and YOURS. There’s a good movie called Oranges And Sunshine that portrays the true story of children removed from the UK and bought to Australia to give them “better” lives. Major fail on the part of the child welfare system. IMO CPS haven’t learned from earlier mistakes. Pity they missed out on the NSW inquiry and reform.
There’s a good reason people don’t respect mall cops.
Honestly, I’ve only ever seen them once use any force whatsoever.
The comments in this thread remind me oh so much of why when I worked Security I always refused to take “loss prevention” positions. The unfortunate truth is that most of the people working in this area of security (mall cops if you will) are as uneducated, bogan like, etc…. as the people they complain about having to deal with. It seems 2 commentors here have gone out of their way already to prove me right on that point. There were always 2 reason I never worked in a shopping mall security postion: first is the customers and second is your co-workers. Which is worse is semantic, they are both as bad as each other to deal with.
Remember kids – eugenics is a real science. Right CC?
Fair comment i get the 200 dollars from my experiences ,ok you can call for under 200 just dont expect to see em for atleast 6 to 7 hours. so really is it worth the time and effort
Response time isn’t as much of a factor if the offender has already left (which would make the job go down the priority list). The same investigation will be conducted either way. Is it worth the effort? That’s for the businesses to decide.
BTW, you’ll know that an offender in custody is generally a different story, response wise.
Tooks said :
Fair comment i get the 200 dollars from my experiences ,ok you can call for under 200 just dont expect to see em for atleast 6 to 7 hours. so really is it worth the time and effort
common32 said :
Yes, well obviously it only gets investigated if it’s reported – it’s a bit hard otherwise. Don’t know where you got the $200 figure from though. Possibly some shops have a policy that they won’t call police if it’s under that value?
it really isnt worth going full time/part time in this job but unfortunatly when ya want the sick pay and holiday pay thats the money you have to put up with matt
common32 said :
17 to 20 bucks? Does your a**e hurt cause it’s been ******! You guys need a better union. I was getting about 22 at the Canberra Centre years ago when I did security there for a month and I thought that was pathetic money for the dangers one may face, and you aren’t even allowed to carry a self defense weapon. But I definitely didn’t see the kind of abuse and stress you would get. Pump your pay up to the minimum at 24 bucks/hr. I have always thought that the private security industry is underrepresented and undervalued.
Especially for being abused scratched and bitten without being able to do a thing. No wonder they call us rubber cops.
what im trying to say is there is a good percentage if he hadnt followed them it wouldnt have been reported at all
Tooks said :
It only gets investigated when it gets reported and then it up to the business, usually only if there is footage of the incident or it hits a certain amount will the police attend and the amount is usually over 200 dollars
common32 said :
It still gets investigated whether they attend or not.
Its all about common sense
all im saying it is not worth the drama for a 80 dollar theft that the cops usually wont attend to anyway. Most loss prevention officers like myself are only on 17 to 20 dollars an hour
Choosing to follow someone, get in a physical confrontation with them, then try to claim self-defence could also be problematic
johnboy said :
I don’t agree personally with the law, that the feotus wasn’t a baby – but it is a law in this contry. Which is why i asked – would someone not take that into consideration?
TheDancingDjinn said :
Would you want to spend the next three years building that defence, one expensive lawyer at a time, in court?
common32 said :
Doesn’t it depend on the age of said feotus? If someone was to hit her in a car accident, and her child was to die there no one would pay for that child’s death, before 20 weeks or so its not considered a person. sad but true. So why would his punch in the stomach come with anything more than self defense after she bit him and scrached him? I don’t agree with the attitude CC displays, but if the kid isn’t a baby in a car accident, it can’t be a baby when she atacks someone and gets herself injured while doing so.
cc Im not having a shot at you but legally if he had of escalated and he injured the baby or god forbid worse he would have the book thrown at him. I do understand what your saying but in the long run we are just employees who where the “sexy” uniform we have no more rights than anyone else