Telford shop manager turns vigilante with CCTV
A shop manager turned vigilante has published CCTV footage online of suspected thieves in the act in a bid to bring them to justice.
Tony Turner, manager of Accessory World in Telford Town Centre, took matters into his own hands by publishing a video of a woman appearing to steal from the shop with children with her.
The video has received almost 2,000 views online, and Mr Turner has received a possible name and address for the woman. Mr Turner, who has contacted police about the alleged theft, has taken similar action on four previous occasions – and he said each time the suspects returned the stolen goods.
He said: "I've now got the alleged shoplifter's name through Facebook. The police will not come down. I gave them the footage the day we posted it, and they said they were going to send somebody down, but still no joy.
"We posted videos on social media a couple of times before and it's been really successful for us. Each time the person has come back and actually paid for the item.
"Four times that has happened, so then we took each video down after that."
In the most recent video, posted just over a week ago, the woman is pictured chatting to several children and they are all looking around.
One of the children appears to pick out which case the woman should allegedly steal and hand it to her, before she places it up her jacket.
The group then walks down the shop and again a child is pointing to the cases and browsing with the adult, before she appears to pick a pink case, pretends to put it back on the shelf, then takes a quick look around to make sure the shop worker is not looking and holds it close to her and walks out of the shop with the children.
Mr Turner said: "On this occasion because kids were involved the faces were blurred. We've got all the evidence there. The kids were actually showing her which cases to take. We show the footage to a lot of people who are really shocked.
"We reported the other crimes to the police and nothing has ever been done apart from one conviction many years ago."
Paul Roberts, spokesman for West Mercia Police, said: "We are aware of images of suspected offenders being posted on a social media site after an alleged theft from a shop in Telford Shopping Centre on August 23.
"The shop has been contacted by police and suitable advice has been given regarding the reporting of crimes and the posting of images of possible offenders on social media.
"West Mercia Police urges all victims of crime to report any incidents to police so that they can be fully investigated and any offenders can be brought to justice."
