SHOP-LIFTING

Southland Times, Issue 19223, 19 April 1924, Page 8

SHOP-LIFTING

A GROWING MENACE. THE POSITION IN CHRISTCHURCH. (Special to the Times), CHRISTCHURCH, April 16. The prevalence of shop-lifting in the city is creating considerable anxiety amongst larger drapery and other retail establishments at tne present time and al though no prosecutions have been reported lately, it is authoritatively stated that the practice is being carried on to an alarming extent. Unceasing vigilance is necessary on the part of assistants and shop walkers in order to dope with the increasing menace. Several prominent drapery firms have found it necessary to improvise a system or reflecting mirrors by which constant observation can be kept. Even with these precautions, however, thefts are repeatedly occurring and the losses of one large establishment run into hundreds of pounds annually, Asked how it was that more of the offenders were not prosecuted, a business man said that only a small number of the miscreants were "caught in the act” and the proprietors of establishments in many cases were loth to take action.

Another reason advanced by retailers and corroborated by various other persons in a position to speak with authority on the subject was that in quite a number of cases, the offenders were people who hfld more or less prominent social positions. It was generally thought that it was the poor widow or deserted wife who entered the ranks of the light-fingered brigade, but in many cases the offenders had been women of social standing. Of course there were cases where the poor classes were involved but comparatively speaking they were few. The speaker said it was the practice of some shopmen to give all and sundry a second, a third and even a fourth chsjnce. Such a policy was conductive to crime and he had always found it a deterrent to let the culprits take the legal consequences.