RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32797, 23 December 1971, Page 18

RANDOM REMINDER

EXHIBIT A

Most people will be looking forward keenly to the holiday season, now almost upon us: we have in mind particularly the shop assistants, whose feet by now must be feeling like very large, warm hams.

But if the days after Christmas, and most of those in January, contribute to the idyllic period of the year when people can dispose their persons upon the sands and in the sunshine, it has to be remembered that not everyone can get away from work. Christmas, New Year and January are, apparently/ peak periods of activity for

those engaged in housebreaking and petty thieving. If they regret that their vocation keeps them at it when it would be nice to be at the beach, their regret is as nothing compared with that of their victims. So from time to time police hold seminars—sometimes designed primarily to help shopkeepers—on crime prevention. There was one in Christchurch only a few months ago. There is no doubt that such seminars help individuals to appreciate how easy they sometimes make the task of the pilferers or the shop-lifters. But there was never more striking evidence of this

than that offered at a police seminar in England, if memory serves —at which an officer was addressing a gathering of retailers on shop-lifting. As he spoke, two gentlemen in white coats came in, wheeling a trolley on which sat a large and expensive refrigerator. They were able to explain that they had simply gone into a shop, so dressed, with their trolley, had helped themselves to the best-looking refrigerator, and had wheeled it away, without anyone saying a word. It was of much interest to the audience. And in particular, to one listener. The man who owned that particular shop.