Her attitude was ‘I don’t give a f***’

And the man who stuffed two hams down his pants

One of my earliest memories is pocketing washers from an Invercargill hardware store, and later leaving without paying.

In fairness I don’t think I had quite grasped the concept of paying for things, but maybe that is what hardened criminals all say.

I was reminded of my bad boy ways when I covered the sentencing of Letiecia ​Terry Wilson, 25, who appeared in the Dunedin District Court via audiovisual link on Tuesday afternoon.

You might remember her; she was nabbed for 19 theft-related charges, the most high profile one involved giving the finger - or flipping the bird - to pursuing retail staff.

I wrote this back in November:

It was shaping up to be a quiet Wednesday afternoon for Oliver Milner, who manages Frontrunner and Fridge Freezer Icebox in Dunedin, until a female customer walked in.

“She was nonchalantly eating an ice cream while browsing the North Face jackets,” Milner said.

Milner told her the jackets had a 20% discount, and she responded with a smile.

Holding two jackets and then two pairs of pants, she moved to the front of the store before crouching down, stuffing them into a bag and “bolting out the door”.

After I wrote the story I was contacted by a covert loss prevention officer (covert because he doesn’t wear a uniform), who had previously nabbed Wilson at a Christchurch supermarket.

I called him yesterday, and he was pleasantly surprised to learn she had been sent to prison, after all her latest crime spree had started just days after completing a Salvation Army rehabilitation programme.

That spree took her from Christchurch, where alcohol, meat and clothes were the targets, to Dunedin (more of the same), and later to Invercargill where a bed sheet set was swiped.

The judge noted that many of the items were stolen to fuel her methamphetamine habit.

The covert loss prevention officer said that when Wilson into the store where he was working she was a relative unknown, however staff were aware of a high number of Christchurch supermarkets ‘‘being hit, and being hit big time’’.

‘‘I didn’t like her from the start,’’ he said.

Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash

Wilson came in with another female, sporting a designer-type shoulder bag ‘‘larger than a pillowcase’’ with them.

While most shoppers tended to follow ‘‘the flow of the supermarket . . . these two didn’t’’.

Their attention turned to the international food section, then pharmaceuticals and later high-end cheeses.

When Wilson was stopped from leaving the supermarket with her large bag now filled with hundreds of dollars of stolen goods, that’s when the abuse started.

‘‘Her attitude was ‘I don’t give a f***’.’’

The man told her to wait in the office, and she started swearing at him and other staff, including that he had molested her and touched her breasts - not an uncommon complaint from apprehended female shoplifters towards male security staff, he said.

He contrasted Wilson’s repeated efforts of stealing often high-end items, which included a penchant for champagne, with that of another shoplifter: an elderly lady who had stolen a small can of spaghetti.

‘‘I’m just so hungry,’’ she told him.

He ended-up buying her that small can, but normally ‘‘you can’t let your emotions get in the way’’.

When a person, like Wilson or even that old lady, was nabbed for the likes of shoplifting, a file was started which included their details: names, addresses and vehicle information.

The latter was becoming increasingly important as retailers use cameras to monitor - and read the car’s licence plates - at each exit/entry. Those cameras effectively read the plates for vehicles connected to people with ‘‘history at the store’’.

If that vehicle was flagged as a vehicle of interest, that information - including a photo of the car - went straight to the phone of security staff.

Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash

Information was not limited to the respective supermarket chain, with information shared between companies on those who stole larger amounts, like Wilson.

Once a person left a vehicle of interest, they were also detected by facial recognition cameras entering the store: ‘‘and we get another ping on our cellphones’’.

Sometimes the would-be thief would wear ‘‘largely floppy hats, sunglasses that sort of thing, which was not overly successful’’.

‘‘I haven’t seen anyone defeating the cameras.’’

Some stores, particularly the larger hardware chains, had adopted ‘‘greeters’’ - people who stood at the door making eye contact and saying ‘hello’ to shoppers as they arrived. That was important because many people entering a store with the intention of stealing would rather do anything than make eye contact, or return a ‘‘hello’’, he said.

In some cases that included people choosing to make a fake phone call, which was often detected by their body language.

The security worker said he preferred to walk the floor, in particular watching a suspect’s hands rather than other body movements. But he also wore a pinhole body camera ‘‘for my own personal safety’’.

‘‘There would not be a week that goes by without somone having a go.’’

That included spitting at him, or threats to bite or scratch, or even physically assaulted.

Christmas time was a particularly busy time for the stores, but also thieves who targeted larger seasonal items such as hams and turkeys.

‘‘I’ve seen a guy with two legs of hams down his pants,’’ he said.

In that particular case the shoplifter wore an oversized coat over tight tracksuit pants, and another pair of pants, effectively becoming a second pocket to pack his ham-fisted attempt at an early Christmas.

Meat, then alcohol, particularly single-serve cans or bottles, were the most popular items to target in supermarkets, he said.

One common method for stealing alcohol included people using two reusable bags - one on top of each other - with the stolen goods concealed in the bottom bag. That would-be thief would often wait for a staff member at the self checkouts to become busy or distracted before making a bid for freedom.

Little did they know that their crime had been detected by the dozens of cameras in the store, and they were already being followed by store security.

Those same cameras could also catch those who chowed down on yet-to-be-purchased food while walking around the supermarket, or those who wrote that their bag of pistachios was actually the much cheaper split peas.

While those crimes seemed small, they soon added-up and ultimately cost all consumers, he said.

Staff at one supermarket in Christchurch, known for its ready-made meals such as roast chicken, often found half eaten carcasses hidden on shelves.

Those people,if caught, said they just got hungry while shopping and intended to pay, while security stayed with them until they did.

‘‘People don’t really see the crime in shoplifting.’’

A simple rule when thinking about shoplifting was ‘‘don’t’’, he said, citing the number of cameras and specialist staff - like him - watching, and waiting.

Wilson was sentenced to 17 months in jail. Her sentencing comes as we hear weekly reports from police about large amounts stolen from retails stores across the city.

It hasn’t been an easy time for those in the sector, dealing with an economic downturn (we can’t say rececession yet) and the likes of major upgrades across the city causing disruptions.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

I got the following quote from Retail NZ chief executive Greg Harford who told me that:

Retail crime is a massive issue right across the sector. Criminals are stealing more and more over time, and the thefts are becoming more brazen, aggressive and sometimes violent.  This is a real worry for everyone in the sector, because everyone in retail should be able to go to work every day, feel safe while they are there and go home safe every day. 

Many stores are reviewing their security arrangements. Retail NZ wants to get the message out that it's never okay to steal, and it's never okay to abuse, threaten or be violent towards anyone in a retail setting.

I still feel bad about those washers.

And I’m sorry to say I had another yarn for today, until I found out that the threat of a media story led the company in question to settle with my informant.

I’m happy for the complainant, who owes me a coffee, as I quietly delete 500 words . . .

I know many people outraged of the fire in Wellington, including questions over compliance, sprinklers and alarms.

Lets hope it leads to action sooner rather than later, Dunedin certainly has a number of similar facilities, and I’m aware of one closing in recent months due to compliance issues.

In other compliance issues (this is like something out of Succession) I can’t embed tweets into Substack, I won’t bore you with the details. That means Tweet of the Week is a pained affair, involving me screenshotting the tweet. Almost as painful as political campaigning.

Anyway, here is my (screenshot) Tweet of the Week.

Life Matters is running its annual appeal day on Friday, and has a QR code which takes people to its GiveaLittle page where people can donate directly or through their website www.lifematters.org.nz/donate

That’s great for people like me who never carry cash . . . just washers.

Here is a suitable song for the forecast ahead:

And go the Nuggets.