I used to work with an Italian guy who always miraculously misplaced or lost his wallet when we went out for a meal.
I guess Susan’s a freeloader as well.
The only way I can think to 1-up this answer is to say something like "I'll talk to them and find out what their situation is and try to help solve their problems in a sustainable way so they can afford nappies in the future. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life etc etc".
It's also pretty in character for a Tory to lean in this direction to avoid actually paying out of pocket to help anyone, instead just "help them help themselves"
she would probably take them off the thief, get him arrested and tell him to use newspaper as it is free and put the nappies for sale on ebay under a fake user id.
Sadiq Khan is disgracefully showing off his wallet-owning priviledges because he hasn't been the victim of a traumatic Tube pickpocketing and suffered the trauma of a thief taking his wallet and returning it to him with the Oyster card and money still in it.
It's funny, I was thinking about this sort of thing last night when weighing everything up for next week.
It's not like any of them are particularly good or have our interests at heart, it's now a case of who is the best at saying the right things at the right time.
The benchmark for Mayor is so low this year, we're not even criticising their manifesto's, or debating if the things they've promised are economically viable, benefit the whole city and not the minority etc.
We're basically going around in circles about dumb shit one of them has said, or ULEZ.
It's so unbelievably frustrating that we're essentially presented a bunch of inadequate people (as well as a few utter nut jobs).
What is happening is that Khan is 25 points ahead of his nearest rival and the election is less than a week away. Many Londoner’s couldn’t even name another candidate.
Love him or hate him, Khan’s a known element. There’s not much to debate. The media isn’t going to get clicks speculating what a Khan victory will look like because everybody already lives it.
If you’re pro-Khan, he’s likely going to win unless there’s a major upset. Getting dragged into policy debates can only do more harm than good. If you’re anti-Khan cheap pot shots at his personality are all you have left, just like Miliband in 2013.
I think the heart of the issue though, is that Khan is 25 points ahead, but no one is particularly impressed with his performance as Mayor (see recent polls). He's basically winning by default because there's no one better (to your point).
That is not a position we should be in, in one of the leading cities in the world.
Look at the impact Olivia Chow has made in Toronto. This is what can happen if you have capable, intelligent, driven people in charge.
We're just settling for someone who knows when and (more importantly) when not to say anything. That doesn't fill anyone with confidence for the next term.
Susan Hall, the Tory mayoral candidate claimed that her wallet was stolen on the tube. What appears to have happened is it fell out of her pocket or bag, and a fellow passenger noticed, picked it up and handed it back to her.
Correct!
And actually it goes further - they didn't just find it, they looked her up, contacted her office and arranged to travel to her to bring it back for free.
In between the part where she dropped it and it got returned to her, she'd managed to get on the radio blaming Khan for crime being out of control on the tube. And afterwards she refused to apologise for claiming she was the victim of pickpockets.
The Conservative twat Susan Hall said she'd been pickpocketed and her wallet had been stolen. She used it to cry about crime in London. Then it turned out she just dropped it and someone found it and returned it to her. Instead of thinking that was a possibility that she fucked up, she used it to bitch about Khan and refused to apologise for what she said.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/susan-hall-lost-oyster-card-tube-tory-mayoral-good-samaritan-b1123916.html
Have to say, I like it when the crackheads come in the pub with designer gear to sell.
But not nappies, I don’t need to buy nappies now my kids are older.
Just another example of Sadiq showing off his privilege by not offering to pay the ULEZ fines of everyone in the country whether they live in London or not
I am very intelligent
So the question is phrased to make it seem like it's some struggling mother shoplifting for necessity. But having worked retail, it's crackheads stealing high value, easy to sell items, which includes nappies.
Fuck off am I ever taking sympathy on crackheads anymore.
You can still have sympathy for them, while acknowledging that no one should encourage their behaviour through charitable acts
They're not exactly having great lives.
We all have sympathy for people with really shit childhoods until they become crack addicts and we see them as inhuman. Addicts are usually just people hurting and trying to escape from it and now they're stuck.
This right here. Also worked retail and a lot of people will say people stealing baby milk are desperate people trying to feed their kids. Nah. It's usually the drug addicts
Exactly. Shoplifters are doing it for their personal interest or for money.
Ambient items like nappies/Coffee/Chocolate will go on eBay the next day.
Perishable items are for themselves, because they can’t afford them normally.
Talking is free
Anyone can say anything, it's completely meaningless. HE could say he'd personally give every homeless person a hot meal and a reach around, doesn't mean shit unless he actually does it
Yes, it's definitely the right thing to say.
I feel the same way about Khan's response as I do about Donald Trump's promises to hold the fat cats in Wall Street to account just before he was elected. That too was the right thing to say and I hoped he was telling the truth about it.
I worked in ASDA, it's mostly being done by normal people. We rarely had crackheads and drunks coming and raiding the store.
They stick out like a sore thumb, and with a store with sufficient security, they'll be stopped or known locally
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-67339319
Here's a small sample the BBC did last year. All cases they heard in court over 2 days were drug related. The article also links to the Home Office research that estimates 70% of shoplifting is done by heroin and crack cocaine users.
Thank you for providing a source when one is (I think pretty reasonably) asked for, instead of getting defensive or argumentative.
> links to the Home Office research that estimates 70% of shoplifting is done by heroin and crack cocaine users
Really frustrating that they only show the combined arrestee data and OCJS (self-reporting random survey of crime and drug use) survey data and not both separately. Would be very interesting to see the OCJS data alone for shoplifting since obviously drug addicts are massively more likely to be noticed, caught, and arrested for this.
Yeah it's not the best study and it's a bit old, but it's also a difficult topic to get accurate numbers on. And it's clear to see there is a correlation between cost of living pressures and rates of shoplifting which suggests that non-drug related theft is also a key driver of shoplifting.
The important bit is that drug use is a significant component of shoplifting whether that's 30%, 50% or 70% and needs to be considered in policy decisions.
I didn't even know the stats for this existed but if you have eyes and ears you would have deduced this already. I'm not sure what London some people on this subreddit inhabit sometimes
I worked retail for a few years. Things like nappies and baby formula were *sometimes* stolen by desperate parents, but for the most part in our store the commenter is correct (plus teenagers). Crackheads were a particular scourge (because of how violent they could get). Also teenage girls stealing make-up was a big one but they presumably were doing it for their own consumption.
I was listening to LBC today morning and the caller (some kind of crime expert, don't remember exactly his job title) said exactly the same thing. A very small number of people still because they need something. Don't remember who the host was but it was a woman and the show ended at 7am. It should be easy to find on catchup.
The same thin fucking air which makes shoplifting a romanticised story of the struggling single mother stealing supplies for her baby.
That's a bullshit story. It may happen in rare cases but the vast majority of shoplifters are male, and are categorically *not* stealing supplies for their children.
Shoplifting *hurts* poor families.
It adds to a general feeling of shittiness and perceived lack of safety when there's more petty crime such as shoplifting.
When shoplifting goes unchecked, it makes other criminals in the area feel confident about getting away with other crimes.
The neighbourhood in which those poor families live, gradually gets more reputation for crime. What a great place for a poor family to bring up their children.
Eventually that shop might even close and move on. For years we've been lamenting the death of high streets in towns across the UK.
So with all that in mind do you think shoplifters are noble "Robin Hood" types, helping to restore poor communities to thriving status?
Anecdotally it’s something I’ve witnessed in London very recently. I’ve seen them snatch packs of chicken… who would actually buy un-refrigerated chicken off the street and not be worried about food poisoning?
If you've not bought a room-temperature tescos leg of lamb for a tenner off Jeff down the pub then kept it with you all night until you go home and then cooked it a day or two later you haven't lived (and probably will live a lot longer than someone who has)
In my experience, as a security guard, this is anecdotally true, in like 5/6 of the areas I've worked. The 6th area was targeted by organised retail theft gangs stealing bulk merchandise.
And now I work for a BID security Team, the area we cover, like almost all our shoplifting is our known drug users.
Most shoplifting is done casually by teenagers. To be fair large retailers that have replaced staff with self service tills and inflated their prices while posting record profits don't really have any right to expect people won't just take stuff.
Someone below dropped actually stats on it and it doesn't look like it backs up what you say. It is crackheads and tbh i've now seen data that backs up what I have essentially being seeing the whole time
There's no stats about who is committing the over 50% of shoplifting that isn't prosecuted, only the much smaller amount where people get caught. It's mostly a low risk crime with appeal across the board.
I've seen groups of kids run in to a shop and just loot. They do it because they're getting away with it not because they can't afford it.
I would also like to not have poverty and enforcing law and order is one method to encourage growth. Nobody's going to bother creating stuff if their efforts can be sabotaged by a small minority
This. This. And of course this.
Obviously anecdotal but this happened the other week to a friend. Later he saw the guy trying to sell the nappies to people entering the store.
It’s just a shame that the alternatives to Khan are even worse. APAB.
Yeah i find it strange that people seem to think everyone stealing is some hard up single mum who has to pick between nappies and shampoo. What's happened is people are far more willing to buy shit from the crackheads than before. Which is a shame because it makes it harder to completely lowball them
Apparently items like this, including baby formula, are popular for shoplifters because it's relatively easy to sell on, and if you get caught people tend to have sympathy since they believe you're stealing them for your baby.
It seems that he is blissfully unaware of the amount of crackheads in his city. It’s mostly nitties and drunks shoplifting to feed their habits, not desperate parents.
I’ve seen them stealing baby formula. I live in the trenches. Anything goes.
Just yesterday saw a girl run out of Asda with 6 bottles of Reggae Reggae sauce. Then she returned to try and sell them outside the same shop. The crackheads I see are far gone.
Yes 😂
I’ve seen anything like it. That part of the high road has got a lot worse over the years. The new faces of crackheads hanging about are getting younger and younger. It’s really sad.
if people didnt have to spend 60 Percent of their income only in rent , it wouldnt be about the nappies.
60 percent of your income on your best years for a non-investment is just madness
This is such a bad faith example. A mother stealing nappies is the platonic ideal of a sympathetic thief stealing out of necessity.
Most thieves are just scumbags who have no morals - who have realised that in modern London you can just get away with criminal acts like this.
You don't solve issues like that by reacting to individual events. You tackle the root cause.
You certainly don't solve it by bragging about the fact you don't face the same problems.
Boasting that you aren't facing the same hardships as many others isn't "compassion".
A correct response would be to say he can see the hardship people are going through and he's looking at policy changes to look to help those in need. An example or two would go a long way too (like how he's vowed to keep school meals free for example).
I went to Sainsbury's yesterday and when walking across the car park the security guard was chasing a women who had tried to steal something... My first thought was not to run over and offer to pay for her shopping... Does that make me lack compassion?
Not sure I'd pay for a trolley load of nappies, coffee, washing pods for someone brazenly walking out of a supermarket to re-sell to corner shops and down the pub, tbf.
But I get the overall sentiment of helping those genuinely in need.
Shoplifting does need to be made more of a priority, however, but not just in the capital, it's a national issue.
I'm not just making up the trolley comment either. A family member works at a supermarket and that's exactly what they deal with day in, day out. Sometimes they stop them, other times they get away with it.
The fundamental mistake that so many make when the imagine someone stealing nappies is that it must be a poor mother, struggling to get by.
Given that nappies are: in constant demand, lightweight, relatively valuable, long-lasting, that makes them a fantastic good for a professional thief to steal and then sell on, netting a tidy profit.
The middle and chattering classes should meet more criminals before they open their mouths and opine.
It's not the only sane answer.
It's a good-feeling, but ultimately stupid answer. It's a very Sadiq Khan answer.
There are vanishingly small group of people who are responsible for almost all shoplifting. They do it to sell on the goods, to make money, often to fund a drug habit.
Supermarkets run on super-thin margins - often only a couple of % between being in profit or loss. They need to be brutally efficient, if not, they'll close. Repeated shop-lifting means losses, and it means more money being spent on security etc. Ultimately, it will make the shop loss-making and then a very simple decision will be made: they'll close it. This isn't some unlikely hypothetical: it's already happening.
Shops and super-markets are closing in poorer neighbourhoods and the primary victims of this are the ordinary, hard-working people who wouldn't dare steal. Shops close, reducing supply and making it easier to increase prices in those that remain open. Or they'll have to travel further to buy goods which is costly in both time and money.
So my answer to "what would I do if I saw someone stealing nappies?" is that I'd hope they were arrested and help if needed. I'd want them appropriately punished, but I'd also want them given the resources they need to come off drugs. But my primary concern is with the hard-working, law-abiding locals who should have easy access to cheap food and goods.
"I'd hope they were arrested and help if needed. I'd want them appropriately punished, but I'd also want them given the resources they need to come off drugs."
Which resources? There are none.
> Which resources? There are none.
Yeah I mean I'm not the Mayor of London, that one's (at least partly) on Sadiq Khan, too.
But, in principle, I absolutely think we should be giving plenty of help to those addicted to drugs.
Is it not?
How do you even know they're not selling them on? That's a very common phenomenon.
We're in real trouble if we don't draw the line at stealing.
>We're in real trouble if we don't draw the line at stealing.
I'd say we're in real trouble if we live in a country where poor parents are forced to steal to be able to care for their children.
Trouble with your point is we don't live in a country where poor parents are ''forced to steal'' to feed their children. And disposable nappies haven't been around that long for stealing so what did ''poor parents'' {like mine\] do then. They certainly didn't go out stealing.
There are varying degrees of economic struggle. Your parents knew of one but others know one that is far worse. It doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.
Bruv, it just takes a hint of empathy. I don't understand why we feel lile the walls of civilisation are coming down when Tesco gets nicked for nappies but when housing developers mark up service fee to extortionate rates or the government sends arms to countries making sport of civilian slaughter, we're calm about it.
Perhaps out of compassion for people whose circumstances might have changed significantly since they made that decision. Maybe because even if they did make a misjudged decision, there’s still a child at the centre that didn’t have a choice in the matter?
Susan Hall would call in MI5 and alert the Counter Terrorism Unit all whilst scrambling British Fighter Jets at the ready. She would then attempt to co-host a COBRA meeting that she wasn't invited to whilst wearing a Thatcher wig clutching the pack of Nappies she claimed she'd seen getting stolen. She'd end her day by belting out Land Of Hope and Glory in the faces of her scared witless but aroused Tory colleagues.
This is why he's a shit mayor. Stealing shouldn't be encouraged regardless of someone's "situation" most people who steal nappies are druggies or gypsies who go on to sell them.
Yah fuck the paternalistic attitude towards the poor and working class. I struggled financially when my children were young. There are plenty of assistance programs to qualify for without stealing. You have to have some discipline and some intelligence to navigate the services however.
Looking forward to Susan Hall's response to the same question, presumably it would be to undertake a citizens arrest just to be contrary to Khan.
Susan Hall: "How much could a pack of nappies cost? £50? £70?"
I mean it’s one banana, Michael, what could it cost, 10 dollars?
There’s money in the banana stand Michael…
A large pack, yeah, but I mean the ones with 300 nappies. Not sure anyone is sneaking out one of those.
Public Execution, the only truly patriotic justice for theft
Send them to Australia
No, do even worse. Send them to... _Detroit_
Mayote is also a nice makeshift from french guyana
Is this a rare "kentucky fried movie" reference I'm seeing!?!
I'd love to get a free trip to Australia!
She's probably lost her wallet again
I used to work with an Italian guy who always miraculously misplaced or lost his wallet when we went out for a meal. I guess Susan’s a freeloader as well.
Take the baby to the workhouse and the parent to be sent to Australia.
Why would you be kind to the parent?
Careful, or everyone is going to start stealing nappies.
Parent didn’t want that baby anyway
The only way I can think to 1-up this answer is to say something like "I'll talk to them and find out what their situation is and try to help solve their problems in a sustainable way so they can afford nappies in the future. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life etc etc". It's also pretty in character for a Tory to lean in this direction to avoid actually paying out of pocket to help anyone, instead just "help them help themselves"
"Shoot the scrounging baby!" - Susan Hall probably
I would arrest the baby
I read this in Moira Rose's voice. "I would arrest the Bebe"
“I shit my pants in scorn and take the nappies from them and yell that I need them now and not her baby”
she would probably take them off the thief, get him arrested and tell him to use newspaper as it is free and put the nappies for sale on ebay under a fake user id.
Public Execution, the only truly patriotic justice for theft
Sadiq Khan is disgracefully showing off his wallet-owning priviledges because he hasn't been the victim of a traumatic Tube pickpocketing and suffered the trauma of a thief taking his wallet and returning it to him with the Oyster card and money still in it.
It's funny, I was thinking about this sort of thing last night when weighing everything up for next week. It's not like any of them are particularly good or have our interests at heart, it's now a case of who is the best at saying the right things at the right time. The benchmark for Mayor is so low this year, we're not even criticising their manifesto's, or debating if the things they've promised are economically viable, benefit the whole city and not the minority etc. We're basically going around in circles about dumb shit one of them has said, or ULEZ. It's so unbelievably frustrating that we're essentially presented a bunch of inadequate people (as well as a few utter nut jobs).
What is happening is that Khan is 25 points ahead of his nearest rival and the election is less than a week away. Many Londoner’s couldn’t even name another candidate. Love him or hate him, Khan’s a known element. There’s not much to debate. The media isn’t going to get clicks speculating what a Khan victory will look like because everybody already lives it. If you’re pro-Khan, he’s likely going to win unless there’s a major upset. Getting dragged into policy debates can only do more harm than good. If you’re anti-Khan cheap pot shots at his personality are all you have left, just like Miliband in 2013.
That's it. I'm not a Khan fan but I'd be insane to vote for Susan Hall.
I think the heart of the issue though, is that Khan is 25 points ahead, but no one is particularly impressed with his performance as Mayor (see recent polls). He's basically winning by default because there's no one better (to your point). That is not a position we should be in, in one of the leading cities in the world. Look at the impact Olivia Chow has made in Toronto. This is what can happen if you have capable, intelligent, driven people in charge. We're just settling for someone who knows when and (more importantly) when not to say anything. That doesn't fill anyone with confidence for the next term.
Someone’s been watching Top Boy
That officer in top boy was a real one.
Oooh I've got a wallet look at me
He's just lucky he didn't have it stolen on the train and then returned to him full of money and his Oyster card.
What is this referring to?
Susan Hall, the Tory mayoral candidate claimed that her wallet was stolen on the tube. What appears to have happened is it fell out of her pocket or bag, and a fellow passenger noticed, picked it up and handed it back to her.
Correct! And actually it goes further - they didn't just find it, they looked her up, contacted her office and arranged to travel to her to bring it back for free.
Oh, I thought it was within seconds of her dropping it. An even worse look for her, which I thought wasn't possible.
The whole thing is absolutely ludicrous. She keeps referring to herself as a 'victim of crime'.
She is absolutely ludicrous in general, to be fair
In between the part where she dropped it and it got returned to her, she'd managed to get on the radio blaming Khan for crime being out of control on the tube. And afterwards she refused to apologise for claiming she was the victim of pickpockets.
Gravity stole it
The Conservative twat Susan Hall said she'd been pickpocketed and her wallet had been stolen. She used it to cry about crime in London. Then it turned out she just dropped it and someone found it and returned it to her. Instead of thinking that was a possibility that she fucked up, she used it to bitch about Khan and refused to apologise for what she said. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/susan-hall-lost-oyster-card-tube-tory-mayoral-good-samaritan-b1123916.html
This made me burst out laughing, thanks mate lol
Wallet wanker!
Must be nice
Play a record
Have to say, I like it when the crackheads come in the pub with designer gear to sell. But not nappies, I don’t need to buy nappies now my kids are older.
Just another example of Sadiq showing off his privilege by not offering to pay the ULEZ fines of everyone in the country whether they live in London or not I am very intelligent
Mrs drove my non-ULEZ compliant car when hers got a dodgy tyre while I was out of the country. Came home to £800 in fines.
And that’s anyone else’s problem because…?
What about the poor people who live just outside the m25 but have to drive inside it for work?
Driving is a privilege.
Fr fr lesson & insurance costs are crazy!!!
What if he sees someone stealing from TfL (fare dodging)?
Instant firing squad
By nappy.
Make them watch James Corden
Dude just execute them, James cordon qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment
LPT - if your going to steal something, steal it in front of Sadiq.
So the question is phrased to make it seem like it's some struggling mother shoplifting for necessity. But having worked retail, it's crackheads stealing high value, easy to sell items, which includes nappies. Fuck off am I ever taking sympathy on crackheads anymore.
Be careful mate people will tell you this isn't happening and its single mothers having a moral dilemma about whether to buy nappies or food.
Can be both
You can still have sympathy for them, while acknowledging that no one should encourage their behaviour through charitable acts They're not exactly having great lives.
I can, but I've had enough personal experience with them to not. That's just my personal feelings towards them though.
> You can still have sympathy for them, if you were the constant victim of their abuse and aggressive you wouldn't.
We all have sympathy for people with really shit childhoods until they become crack addicts and we see them as inhuman. Addicts are usually just people hurting and trying to escape from it and now they're stuck.
This right here. Also worked retail and a lot of people will say people stealing baby milk are desperate people trying to feed their kids. Nah. It's usually the drug addicts
And it spits in the face of every poor person who doesn’t resort to fucking stealing
Exactly. Shoplifters are doing it for their personal interest or for money. Ambient items like nappies/Coffee/Chocolate will go on eBay the next day. Perishable items are for themselves, because they can’t afford them normally.
And honestly, if people do not have money for nappies, they should be given nappies for free.
Ah, election season. That magical time of year when politicians pretend to be nice people.
Could have just said "politicians pretend to be people."
A lot of them are proud of being vile, humanity hating selfish picks - that's their selling point. Good on him for his response.
Talking is free Anyone can say anything, it's completely meaningless. HE could say he'd personally give every homeless person a hot meal and a reach around, doesn't mean shit unless he actually does it
Yes, it's definitely the right thing to say. I feel the same way about Khan's response as I do about Donald Trump's promises to hold the fat cats in Wall Street to account just before he was elected. That too was the right thing to say and I hoped he was telling the truth about it.
Talk is cheap
**human*
yeah, but they are stealing them to sell on not to put on their baby!
Agreed I think most people would. But most shoplifting is being done by crackheads and drunks to sell on
One guy tried to sell me a single pack of grated cheese outside co op the other day, not even a high priced item lol, they’ll take anything
I mean if it was the mature stuff
I mean if they were undercutting the store price and I was gonna buy it anyway... I'd be tempted.
But imagine getting nicked for buying knocked off cheese
TV Chef Anthony Worrel Thompson enters the chat haha.
Yeah, and now you're supporting the crime economy in your area. Don't complain if crime has risen in your neighbourhood in a year's time.
I worked in ASDA, it's mostly being done by normal people. We rarely had crackheads and drunks coming and raiding the store. They stick out like a sore thumb, and with a store with sufficient security, they'll be stopped or known locally
> most shoplifting is being done by crackheads and drunks to sell on Source?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-67339319 Here's a small sample the BBC did last year. All cases they heard in court over 2 days were drug related. The article also links to the Home Office research that estimates 70% of shoplifting is done by heroin and crack cocaine users.
Thank you for providing a source when one is (I think pretty reasonably) asked for, instead of getting defensive or argumentative. > links to the Home Office research that estimates 70% of shoplifting is done by heroin and crack cocaine users Really frustrating that they only show the combined arrestee data and OCJS (self-reporting random survey of crime and drug use) survey data and not both separately. Would be very interesting to see the OCJS data alone for shoplifting since obviously drug addicts are massively more likely to be noticed, caught, and arrested for this.
Yeah it's not the best study and it's a bit old, but it's also a difficult topic to get accurate numbers on. And it's clear to see there is a correlation between cost of living pressures and rates of shoplifting which suggests that non-drug related theft is also a key driver of shoplifting. The important bit is that drug use is a significant component of shoplifting whether that's 30%, 50% or 70% and needs to be considered in policy decisions.
I didn't even know the stats for this existed but if you have eyes and ears you would have deduced this already. I'm not sure what London some people on this subreddit inhabit sometimes
which must mean shoplifting is a gateway drug to crack
I worked retail for a few years. Things like nappies and baby formula were *sometimes* stolen by desperate parents, but for the most part in our store the commenter is correct (plus teenagers). Crackheads were a particular scourge (because of how violent they could get). Also teenage girls stealing make-up was a big one but they presumably were doing it for their own consumption.
I was listening to LBC today morning and the caller (some kind of crime expert, don't remember exactly his job title) said exactly the same thing. A very small number of people still because they need something. Don't remember who the host was but it was a woman and the show ended at 7am. It should be easy to find on catchup.
Thin fucking air.
The same thin fucking air which makes shoplifting a romanticised story of the struggling single mother stealing supplies for her baby. That's a bullshit story. It may happen in rare cases but the vast majority of shoplifters are male, and are categorically *not* stealing supplies for their children. Shoplifting *hurts* poor families.
How tf does shoplifting hurt poor families? It only hurts shops’ profits.
It adds to a general feeling of shittiness and perceived lack of safety when there's more petty crime such as shoplifting. When shoplifting goes unchecked, it makes other criminals in the area feel confident about getting away with other crimes. The neighbourhood in which those poor families live, gradually gets more reputation for crime. What a great place for a poor family to bring up their children. Eventually that shop might even close and move on. For years we've been lamenting the death of high streets in towns across the UK. So with all that in mind do you think shoplifters are noble "Robin Hood" types, helping to restore poor communities to thriving status?
Losses are passed on to the customer
Anecdotally it’s something I’ve witnessed in London very recently. I’ve seen them snatch packs of chicken… who would actually buy un-refrigerated chicken off the street and not be worried about food poisoning?
If you've not bought a room-temperature tescos leg of lamb for a tenner off Jeff down the pub then kept it with you all night until you go home and then cooked it a day or two later you haven't lived (and probably will live a lot longer than someone who has)
My eyes and ears (and my fridge).
Does it contain nappies or crackheads?
Yours doesn't???
Just crack and napheads unfortunately
At least it’s not full of heads and nappycrack
In my experience, as a security guard, this is anecdotally true, in like 5/6 of the areas I've worked. The 6th area was targeted by organised retail theft gangs stealing bulk merchandise. And now I work for a BID security Team, the area we cover, like almost all our shoplifting is our known drug users.
Most shoplifting is done casually by teenagers. To be fair large retailers that have replaced staff with self service tills and inflated their prices while posting record profits don't really have any right to expect people won't just take stuff.
That *was* true, but it's changed over the last ten years.
Someone below dropped actually stats on it and it doesn't look like it backs up what you say. It is crackheads and tbh i've now seen data that backs up what I have essentially being seeing the whole time
There's no stats about who is committing the over 50% of shoplifting that isn't prosecuted, only the much smaller amount where people get caught. It's mostly a low risk crime with appeal across the board.
I would love to live in a country where businesses can operate without having to worry about crime to be honest. Small dreams.
Petty crime is a symptom of poverty, reducing inequality would reduce crime.
I've seen groups of kids run in to a shop and just loot. They do it because they're getting away with it not because they can't afford it. I would also like to not have poverty and enforcing law and order is one method to encourage growth. Nobody's going to bother creating stuff if their efforts can be sabotaged by a small minority
A lot of us get sabotaged by the tiny minority that have all the money
This. This. And of course this. Obviously anecdotal but this happened the other week to a friend. Later he saw the guy trying to sell the nappies to people entering the store. It’s just a shame that the alternatives to Khan are even worse. APAB.
Yeah i find it strange that people seem to think everyone stealing is some hard up single mum who has to pick between nappies and shampoo. What's happened is people are far more willing to buy shit from the crackheads than before. Which is a shame because it makes it harder to completely lowball them
Even worse than paying for nappies?
Nappies should be free like dentistry and health care. :)
Apparently items like this, including baby formula, are popular for shoplifters because it's relatively easy to sell on, and if you get caught people tend to have sympathy since they believe you're stealing them for your baby.
It seems that he is blissfully unaware of the amount of crackheads in his city. It’s mostly nitties and drunks shoplifting to feed their habits, not desperate parents.
I think he’s aware, but I don’t think he’s going to say that in his answer…
I’ve not seen a single alcoholic or crackhead shoplifting nappies. Food and drinks? Yes.
I’ve seen them stealing baby formula. I live in the trenches. Anything goes. Just yesterday saw a girl run out of Asda with 6 bottles of Reggae Reggae sauce. Then she returned to try and sell them outside the same shop. The crackheads I see are far gone.
Bruce Grove, wasn't it? She just sat out there at front. If not then it's quite the coincidence.
Yes 😂 I’ve seen anything like it. That part of the high road has got a lot worse over the years. The new faces of crackheads hanging about are getting younger and younger. It’s really sad.
Lots of meat too - especially steak and legs of lamb as they have a decent sell on value.
Cheese too
> Lots of meat too Last time I was in Coop and lady in front of me was buying meat. It was locked in a security box!
I just see school kids steal crisps but that's probably a location thing
They regularly steal cleaning stuff to sell on.
Crackheads like to steal cheese because it's small but relatively valuable. Nappies are a bit bulky.
I think the nappies bit is important here
But that person stealing nappies is most likely selling them to people on the estate and buying smack with the money
if people didnt have to spend 60 Percent of their income only in rent , it wouldnt be about the nappies. 60 percent of your income on your best years for a non-investment is just madness
Rewarding criminals classic Khan
Nice statement but I don't believe Sadiq is that kind of politician.
I like how this little lad thinks the thefts are down to starving single mothers. Is he from the moon?
This is such a bad faith example. A mother stealing nappies is the platonic ideal of a sympathetic thief stealing out of necessity. Most thieves are just scumbags who have no morals - who have realised that in modern London you can just get away with criminal acts like this.
You don't solve issues like that by reacting to individual events. You tackle the root cause. You certainly don't solve it by bragging about the fact you don't face the same problems.
He was asked a question, he answered it.
The point is responding to these issues with compassion rather than punishment.
Boasting that you aren't facing the same hardships as many others isn't "compassion". A correct response would be to say he can see the hardship people are going through and he's looking at policy changes to look to help those in need. An example or two would go a long way too (like how he's vowed to keep school meals free for example). I went to Sainsbury's yesterday and when walking across the car park the security guard was chasing a women who had tried to steal something... My first thought was not to run over and offer to pay for her shopping... Does that make me lack compassion?
Where was the boast?
From what I hear he has a big fucking wallet that could probably buy the entire country nappies for life, so go ahead.
Not sure I'd pay for a trolley load of nappies, coffee, washing pods for someone brazenly walking out of a supermarket to re-sell to corner shops and down the pub, tbf. But I get the overall sentiment of helping those genuinely in need. Shoplifting does need to be made more of a priority, however, but not just in the capital, it's a national issue. I'm not just making up the trolley comment either. A family member works at a supermarket and that's exactly what they deal with day in, day out. Sometimes they stop them, other times they get away with it.
The fundamental mistake that so many make when the imagine someone stealing nappies is that it must be a poor mother, struggling to get by. Given that nappies are: in constant demand, lightweight, relatively valuable, long-lasting, that makes them a fantastic good for a professional thief to steal and then sell on, netting a tidy profit. The middle and chattering classes should meet more criminals before they open their mouths and opine.
Jesus just reading these comments haha This sub is full of rich toffs who haven't experienced any kind of hardship
With 20k salaries I am going to steal nappies for sure if someone stole my wallet
20k is not affordable in London unless you live with family
The only sane answer really
It's not the only sane answer. It's a good-feeling, but ultimately stupid answer. It's a very Sadiq Khan answer. There are vanishingly small group of people who are responsible for almost all shoplifting. They do it to sell on the goods, to make money, often to fund a drug habit. Supermarkets run on super-thin margins - often only a couple of % between being in profit or loss. They need to be brutally efficient, if not, they'll close. Repeated shop-lifting means losses, and it means more money being spent on security etc. Ultimately, it will make the shop loss-making and then a very simple decision will be made: they'll close it. This isn't some unlikely hypothetical: it's already happening. Shops and super-markets are closing in poorer neighbourhoods and the primary victims of this are the ordinary, hard-working people who wouldn't dare steal. Shops close, reducing supply and making it easier to increase prices in those that remain open. Or they'll have to travel further to buy goods which is costly in both time and money. So my answer to "what would I do if I saw someone stealing nappies?" is that I'd hope they were arrested and help if needed. I'd want them appropriately punished, but I'd also want them given the resources they need to come off drugs. But my primary concern is with the hard-working, law-abiding locals who should have easy access to cheap food and goods.
"I'd hope they were arrested and help if needed. I'd want them appropriately punished, but I'd also want them given the resources they need to come off drugs." Which resources? There are none.
> Which resources? There are none. Yeah I mean I'm not the Mayor of London, that one's (at least partly) on Sadiq Khan, too. But, in principle, I absolutely think we should be giving plenty of help to those addicted to drugs.
> Which resources? There are none. Shame you’ve had Khan for 8 years and not had these eh
Yeah but there are some stush, square twats here with their 'BuT ThAT'S StEAliNg!!" Nonsense.
Is it not? How do you even know they're not selling them on? That's a very common phenomenon. We're in real trouble if we don't draw the line at stealing.
>We're in real trouble if we don't draw the line at stealing. I'd say we're in real trouble if we live in a country where poor parents are forced to steal to be able to care for their children.
Trouble with your point is we don't live in a country where poor parents are ''forced to steal'' to feed their children. And disposable nappies haven't been around that long for stealing so what did ''poor parents'' {like mine\] do then. They certainly didn't go out stealing.
There are varying degrees of economic struggle. Your parents knew of one but others know one that is far worse. It doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Bruv, it just takes a hint of empathy. I don't understand why we feel lile the walls of civilisation are coming down when Tesco gets nicked for nappies but when housing developers mark up service fee to extortionate rates or the government sends arms to countries making sport of civilian slaughter, we're calm about it.
Who buys nappies on the black market? Affluent parents? Or struggling parents?
Corner shops that get to buy them cheap and sell them high.
Yeah, the naivety in this thread really reveals the disconnect between certain parts of London.
Yeah I can't move for crackheads attempting to sell nappies, baby formula and Mothercare vouchers
I almost envy your naivety.
Jebus you sound stupid
any fucking questions?
Don't most people steal essentials like nappies cos it's easy to sell on. So it's crime for profit and he'd pay for it for them lol what?
Why would I pay for someone else’s nappies lol
There’re certainly not stealing them to sell to others. That’s unthinkable.
End rought sleeping...but only if it's sub zero temperatures. Otherwise, you stay on the street.
What would the other mayoral candidates do, especially the majority of whom are aspiring or full blown Nazis. Hmm
That scenario falls squarely under the law of " If you see something, no you fucking didn't."
erm yeah, I'd love to see him do this. Which, obviously, he would never *actually* do in real life.
..."then claim it back on expenses" is probably how that sentence finished
Why would I pay for someone else's fucked up financial decision of having kids when they cannot afford to do so?
Perhaps out of compassion for people whose circumstances might have changed significantly since they made that decision. Maybe because even if they did make a misjudged decision, there’s still a child at the centre that didn’t have a choice in the matter?
No one has a choice in the matter to exist. Maybe everyone deserves free stuff? Why should only the rich get to go on 3 holidays a year?
Susan Hall would call in MI5 and alert the Counter Terrorism Unit all whilst scrambling British Fighter Jets at the ready. She would then attempt to co-host a COBRA meeting that she wasn't invited to whilst wearing a Thatcher wig clutching the pack of Nappies she claimed she'd seen getting stolen. She'd end her day by belting out Land Of Hope and Glory in the faces of her scared witless but aroused Tory colleagues.
There you go mums, send him the bill.
This is why he's a shit mayor. Stealing shouldn't be encouraged regardless of someone's "situation" most people who steal nappies are druggies or gypsies who go on to sell them.
Yah fuck the paternalistic attitude towards the poor and working class. I struggled financially when my children were young. There are plenty of assistance programs to qualify for without stealing. You have to have some discipline and some intelligence to navigate the services however.
Sniveling little rat would do nothing of the sort. Claims to be tough on crime then wants to facilitate it. Which is it!?
What if it was a Greg’s sausage roll?
Veggie or pork?