A Gold Coast supermarket manager says "desperate" thieves are going to extraordinary lengths to steal hundreds of dollars worth of food, as businesses struggle amid a deepening cost of living crisis.
IGA manager Janet Doyle said she had spent hours scouring CCTV footage of people robbing her store, in Tugun, and said there had been an increase in theft over the past two years.
"We're so sick and tired of people coming in shoving food down their pants [or] walking out with baskets of food out the front door," she said.
"I think it's the times now that people are just so desperate, they want to just steal."
She said she had tried putting up signs, chasing people down the street and confronting thieves to address the issue.
Ms Doyle said the thefts were happening across the region, with others complaining of the same issues.
Said recalled recently seeing a woman fleeing a neighbouring store, crossing the road towards her.
"She was in the middle of the road, throwing the sandwiches and everything out of her pockets," she said.
"I approached her and said, 'You can't steal from us as well'."
In one instance, Ms Doyle said she told the offender the police were coming, and the response from the woman was: "You've gotta do what you've gotta do."
Inspector Bruce Kuhn of the Southern Patrol Group said theft numbers fluctuate from area to area, and it was difficult to determine a pattern.
"Quite often, some people go to social media platforms and suddenly everyone's jumping on saying 'This happened to me,' and we don't know about it," he said.
"As far as saying it's worse in [the southern Gold Coast], we have no evidence to suggest that.
"But it may be a case of people not reporting everything that's happening."
Abuse not tolerated
Staff had been "pushed and abused" after catching people red-handed trying to walk out with unpaid goods, Ms Doyle said.
Some people have been seen pairing up to use the entries as exits.
"This lady the other day stole a whole basket of meat and freezer stuff," she said.
"She had her boyfriend standing out the front waiting for him to open the door so she could run straight out."
A new sign has been displayed at the front of the store aimed at deterring robbers, but Ms Doyle said it was a disheartening thing to have to do.
"I got so sick and tired of it, that I thought I'm gonna put a sign out the front because this is a family business," she said.
Warning against vigilante action
Criminal lawyer Bill Potts said laws against low-level stealing were difficult for police to enforce.
"So what they [police] might regard as low-end crime, that is theft from shops, it’s not the highest priority for them," he said.
Superintendent Khun said burglaries were a focus for police, and urged business owners to report anything that "might seem trivial".
"The important thing is to actually tell the police," he said.
"We want to know about everything because sometimes it's just a piece of the jigsaw puzzle is all we're looking for [to find the offender]."
Mr Potts warned against other shoppers stepping in if they saw someone doing the wrong thing.
"If you see someone stealing, don’t physically intervene but tell the storekeeper, call the police," he said.
"Don’t take the law into your own hands."
