Katlehong police say they have noticed an increase in shoplifting under teenage boys and women aged between 21 to 35. Sam Ntuli Mall, Kathlehong Crossing and Sontonga Mall are the places most targeted.

Police spokesperson Constable Sivenkosi Mtwa told Kathorus Mail that the women caught were mostly unemployed single mothers and housewives. Only a handful of adult males are caught for shoplifting. Areas that are targeted have a high volume of shoppers, especially at the end of the moth.

According to Mtwa items often stolen by women include:

• Tinned foods
• Baby food
• Baby formula
• Cheese
• Sanitary pads
• Cosmetics
• Shoe polish

A manager at a store often targeted by the shoplifters told the newspaper that the value of the stolen goods amounts to thousands of rand every month. He requested to stay anonymous.

Stores usually targeted by shoplifters include:

• Grocery stores
• General food stores
• Clothing shops and
• Cellphone shops

Mtwa says they believe that incidents of food stolen are the result of poverty and unemployment.

Many people arrested for shoplifting list unemployment and their inability to feed their families as the main reason for their criminal actions. He says shop managers often let the apprehended ‘thief’ go once they have recovered their stolen goods.

Mtwa says some managers of the bigger stores find themselves in a dilemma when the family of an unemployed housewife or the parents of teenagers plead with them not to press charges.

“How can I send a starving mother of five children to jail for stealing a block of cheese and a loaf of bread from my shop? I’d rather take the cheese back to the shelf and allow her to leave the store than aggravate her plight by sending her to prison,” says a manager at a wholesale food store who also asked to remain anonymous.

Police say they discourage intervention by families because it tends to encourage crime rather than deter wrongdoing.

Efforts by the newspaper to contact three major food stores – Pick n Pay, Checkers and Shoprite – about what losses they incur were unsuccessful.

Last week, Colonel Pieter Erasmus, the head of local visible policing in Katlehong, sector managers Sergeants Dlamini and Makeke, Domestic Violence Co-ordinator Constable Baloyi and reservists conducted foot patrols at shopping centres to educate shoppers about crime and shoplifting.

According to Erasmus, many shoppers regard shoplifting as a minor crime.

“Sadly, many people who engage in this crime forget that shoplifting can have an enormous effect on their lives because it comes with a criminal record,” warned Erasmus.