While Winnipeg police and Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries clamp down on brazen booze theft, the owner of a local grocery chain says it’s not just Liquor Marts that are dealing with a rampant increase in shoplifting.
Munther Zeid, owner of the Food Fare chain in Winnipeg, said shoplifting in his stores is “extremely, unbelievably worse” over the past several months.
“We’re finding, at certain locations, quadruple, even more, as high as eight to ten people a day,” who are shoplifting, he said.
MLL and Winnipeg Police announced several measures to tighten security at Liquor Marts last week as thefts, many of them brazen or violent, have spiked over the last two years. Those measures include rotating fully-uniformed police officers at some locations, giving some special constables the power to detain thieves and turn them over to the police, anti-theft devices and more.
Late last year Zeid told Global News things like baby formula and laundry detergent had to be put behind his counters to deter theft. Now, it’s even worse, he said.
“Basically the biggest things are meat and cheese, the biggest ticket items,” he said.
“People that steal to use for themselves, steal one … These ones are the gangs. It’s organized crime. They’re stealing meat, they’re stealing cheese, in large quantities.”
The thieves then sell the goods for pennies on the dollar to get money for meth or other drugs, claimed Zeid. “Whatever reason, it’s getting ridiculous.”
Zeid rarely bothers calling police now, he said, because they’re unable to get to the store quickly while they’re dealing with more violent crimes. Most of the time, when the store catches shoplifters, they’re confronted by two or three employees, the items they were trying to steal taken away, and they’re told to leave the store.
“A couple of our stores have extra security, we’ve got people right at the doors, we’ve sort of identified a lot of the shoplifters that come in, we have some regulars,” he said. “We’re sharing photos between us, our own stores, and other retailers … so we’re on the watch for them.”
Confronting people themselves isn’t the safest option, admitted Zeid, but he sees little choice.
“It is getting so bad. I’m telling you, people are stealing, they need money for some reason and they know they can do it, they know they’re getting away with it because we’re short on police. They know that there’s no penalty to what they’re doing.”
Winnipeg police said they were unable to do an interview or provide a statement, but have said in the past patrons and store owners should not confront thieves but instead call police.
-With files from Geoff Currier and Marek Tkash
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