My manager was threatened with a knife

[Little Retail Rabbit]

Wasn't entirely sure where to put it.

This happened on Friday. After 4 o'clock, it was just me and my manager, and we were sweeping up, and we got chatting to some customers. My manager realised she had left her broom down the front of the shop, and went to retrieve it. I didn't see what happened partly because our summer sale rails create a massive blind spot in that area and because I was serving, but I later saw the security footage.

My manager approached one of the front stands when she saw someone she recognised. It was a little while later that she realised this was who we will call AC (AC's mugshot is on all the local shop-watches. In honesty I've never seen her in the flesh before, but I know her mugshot, she's a very ugly woman, looks like she's been attacked by the mad cosmetic surgeon from Bioshock), but she was thrown off because AC has cut her hair short. AC hasn't been in the area for ages, but my manager saw her a couple of weeks ago wearing an ankle tag, but it wasn't until the day of this incident that she realised it was AC. She could see AC was behind the stand and it looked very much like she was stuffing stock into her large handbag. As my manager walked around, she could see the chino-pants we're currently stocking in the open bag.

She reached out for it and said "I'll have those back, thank you very much." AC turned and backed away snapping; "Fuck off, I haven't got anything. She started to leave the shop. Just as they both passed the doors, my manager made anothr lunge for the back, when AC turned around, stuck her hand in her jacket and said "Fuck off, I've got a fucking knife!" My manager, sensibly, let her go, radio'd the incident (the local CCTV operators lost her almost immediately because they are retards, but the manager of the nearby Superdrug identified her) and my manager rang 999. She was shaking, and when she spoke to her Regional Manager, she started crying a little.

In hindsight, it's quite likely that AC was lying about the knife, but its still not worth the risk. We're a dodgy area (as you'll see by my footnote) but its the first time any of us has been threatened in that manner. I was threatened with a battering in my first 2 years, but never with a knife. Loss Prevention has provided us with a security guard for a short time, but in honesty I don't put much faith in security guards in the UK. They don't have much training at all, and certainly not as much as I know US guards do.

Here is the real suck. A policewoman came to take details...but forgot her paper work and stuff so she couldn't take an actual statement and didn't write ANYTHING down. We couldn't burn off the DVD from the footage as there was only 2 members of staff (we certainly weren't going to leave just one of us, i.e, me running the store alone after that. The WPC seemed to have little idea of what to do or even what ws going on. She was told AC's name and then said "Oh is she known to the police?" The Superdrug manager had already confirmed that AC has JUST been released from prison on probation, and was under curfew, hence the ankle tag, and being an infamous junkie and shop-lifter, she certainly is known to most if not all the retail workers in this town and it beggers belief that a bobby doing a beat in this precinct wouldn't know who AC is. For the threat alone they could have arrested her, but instead she said she wouldn't do anything till she saw the footage. My manager was saying "you could go to her address tonight, she's on curfew so its not like you won't be able to find her!" WPC says no, and asks my manager to call her as soon as the DVD was burned and ready so it could be picked up. My manager went into work early yesterday just to burn to the footage and phone them to inform them it was ready for pick up. I finished work at 4 yesterday and still no one had been by to pick it up.

Although the footage shows her stealing it, I'm almost convinced she'll get let off, because this stuff has happened before- you have a video of them knicking it and they still say "insufficient evidence."

No wonder the police get a lot of stick around here. Maybe they wouldn't if they did their jobs properly.

Here is some anti-suck. The manager from Superdrug, the security guard from Nettos and a lady who works elsewhere in the precinct all came into our store to comfort and support us. This precinct has a bad rep, but all of us who work here stick together and help each other out

Sucky footnote: Another very well known heroin-addict and shop lifter was seen off her face and swaying around the high street the same day...heavily pregnant.

[Bright_Star]

That doesn't make any sense! To have someone stealing right there on camera & they let them go??? How can that possibly be considered insufficient evidence?

[Little Retail Rabbit]

That doesn't make any sense! To have someone stealing right there on camera & they let them go??? How can that possibly be considered insufficient evidence?

Tell me about it. This one time, a guy stole the charity box from our counter- the little thin cardboard money box they tack into the bottom of the cardboard box that contains Cancer Research Charity badges, Thanks to this bastard's move, we now have something else that is tied down onto the counter. Well anyway, we saw the footage...you can see him prise it from the badge-box and slip it up the sleeve of his coat. We had to tell the charity we had no money for them. We burned off the DVD and gave it to the police...we know who the bastard is, but they still said "insufficient evidence." We're just hoping Karma will take this one into her own hands. Its disgraceful, stealing from a charity. This guy still comes in our shop too; we watch him like a hawk, bt we reckon some people take pity on him (including one of my dumbass colleagues) because he has...low intelligence <.<

[bhskittykatt]

That's majorly sucky! I mean, I complain about the local PD here sometimes...I guess I really shouldn't complain.

Glad your manager made it out okay. Whether she had a knife or not, it's better not to risk it.

[Tsiyeria]

If she was wearing an ankle tag, her whereabouts are recorded, right? I mean, surely they have that recorded SOMEWHERE. Therefore, since you have several eyewitnesses saying she was in the area, as well as your security footage, you should have a good case to put in front of a judge. Right?

I'm in the southern US, so I'm not really familiar with the way UK law works.

[bainsidhe]

I'm hoping her threat of a weapon will be taken seriously and that her threat will be cause to get her arrested. I'd go over the policewoman's head and talk to her boss. Getting the brushoff is terrible.

The apartment of a friend's son was burglarized. He suspected who did it and gave the name to the cops. Police were too busy to follow his lead. So the son obtained video evidence of people loading up a vehicle with his stuff. But since you couldn't see faces, it wasn't enough proof for the police to even go ask the suspects. Eventually, the loser thief texted an apology to the son, confessing his crime and offering to return stuff. Which he never did. And the police never followed-up on the text because, as they explained, stuff probably couldn't be recovered and they were busy with other crime.

It makes me suspect that the lack of police interest is due to the amount of crime in your area. The above story happened in *our city*, where crime is pretty common and police are stretched thin. Yet when a burglary happens a few miles away in a nearby community, it makes the police blotter section of *our city* newspaper.

I suggest being a squeaky wheel and hope for results. Best of luck to you and be safe.

[underemployeed]

Yeah the reason I work in the suburb I do is because of Police response times, I would never work for my company in one of the big city location without a bullet proof vest, my 9mm and 12Ga. They take forever to show up..... our location within 3 minutes the whole department has responded, along with the township to back them up. and if something really major happens the township next to them will roll up. So if there is a stand off, within literally 10 minutes there will be no less than 30 cop cars surrounding are small ass location with a geared up tactical team, like I said nothing really major happens in the area I work, the love having something to do, it justifies their paychecks and the cool toys they have.

And when we have a drive off, we now call up the cops, they run the plate, track the person down and on a few occasions actually dragged them back in to pay. Others have been on honor system to come pay (ie credit didn't work or they just have head up their ass)

[Bunny the Veggie Slayer]

Don't suppose you're based in the NE are you? We had a shoplifter in on saturday who was in and out in under 2 minutes, but still managed £130 of champagne. When I saw the CCTV I thought to myself "that's The one who hit us the same time last year.". When the local copper arrived he took one look and said "that's [name] who was in last year!"

Badly died blond hair. Big bag over one shoulder. Messed up face and huge bug-eye sunglasses sound familiar?

[bunrotha]

If she was wearing an ankle tag, her whereabouts are recorded, right? I mean, surely they have that recorded SOMEWHERE. Therefore, since you have several eyewitnesses saying she was in the area, as well as your security footage, you should have a good case to put in front of a judge. Right?

I'm in the southern US, so I'm not really familiar with the way UK law works.

Ah, the joy of criminal justice in the UK. I am not a cop, but my line of work sees enough of them that I know a bit about this. The ankle tag is organised and allegedly monitored by (private contractor of lowest bid on behalf of) the probation service, who are entirely unconnected to the police. Maybe a memo will be issued regarding Ms Tag-ette, and an over-worked police sergeant may find an officer to go check on her, possibly by ringing her up, or making a visit at oh-dark-hundred, by which time she is of course right back where she's supposed to be. The police might eventually manage to convince a private sector monitoring operator to write down that Ms Tag-ette was AWOL at the time she was robbing, but it'll be uphill work.

The police don't get to decide on sufficient evidence or not- there is the mighty (sounding) Crown Prosecution Service, who do not have a public face at all. They are staffed by lawyers, and targeted, not on how many people they prosecute, but on what proportion of their cases are won. This, of course, means they won't prosecute unless they get documentary evidence in the form of a partnership agreement between (offender) and satan, notarised by the pope, and there was live TV coverage of the offence, with an interview of the offender giving their name and address. Because otherwise the case *might* fail at court. And that would make them look bad against their target, and bad in the eyes of other lawyers, possibly limiting their career.

The police are as frustrated by this as the rest of us, but since most folk only see the offender hauled off by the police, followed by no action, they assume it's the police who dropped the ball. The rozzers may have done all their acres of paperwork, interviews and detecting, and even done it correctly, but the whole thing can be canned by a junior lawyer who doesn't want to risk putting their name to a case that has the remotest risk of failure.

So not always the cops' fault. Sometimes, they know it's a waste of time trying to convince the CPS (not accountable to you or the police, accountable to that target) to run with a case, and even if it gets to court, a magistrate may believe the defence lawyering- shoplifters rarely get locked up, or any sanction that might actually stop them coming back, it's all about rehabilitation, y'know.... stopping now... fratching beckons... so the police don't always do the legwork any more. That I understand, but do not approve of.

[Andara Bledin]

If you have surveillance of the person actually stealing from your shop, maybe you could prosecute on the civil level?

I know it probably would not be worth it on the basis of actual monetary value, but it might light a fire as to the inaction of the CPS on what should be relatively open and shut cases.

^-.-^

[Sapphire Silk]

In the United States, even a threat of a weapon turns the crime from shoplifting to Armed Robbery, regardless of whether or not there is actually a weapon.

Cops here would be on that in an instant.

So sorry to hear you got such a dumb one.

[lineswine]

but she was thrown off because AC has cut her hair short.

I take it that prior to this time, it was longer?

[Rapscallion]

I believe the way tags work is that they have to be applied to a machine at home at certain times as requested to confirm that the wearer is obeying curfews. I don't think they're tracking tags yet, but I could be wrong.

Rapscallion

[Little Retail Rabbit]

Bunny the Veggie Slayer- no, I'm from the UK.

Panacea- thats what my mum said. She loves Law and Order :3

Lineswine: Yeah, it used to be longer.

Well, the cop assigned this case is REALLY dragging her heels. She only got the DVD because another cop investigating another crime happened to come and check on the manager and said he'd back it back to the station. Its been nearly 2 weeks now...we know A's name, we know what she stole, we have evidence and they know where she lives but she's not been arrested yet -_-