Forum Topic

We must kerb the Scallywags shoplifting,fare dodging and thieving.

Its seems that shop staff and others are afraid to challenge shoplifters for fear of receiving injuries or more.I observed a scuffy chap..with no socks...taking food and drink from Marks and Spencers shelving... then pretend to settle his bill at the self service check out and then proceed to leave by the back exit. I told three hefty male staff at the back of the Store to curtail their chatter and to chase the scalleywag."Oh no ,we're not allow to apprehened shoppers. I reported the matter to the Manager. He too said we mustn't challenge them. Call the Police? (Waste of time?).So businesses on OUR HIGH STREET ARE HAVING TO TOLERATE THESE SCALLEYWAGS. At Chiswick Park Station I observe a chap crash through the double sized exit barrier without showing his ticket.I asked the Station chap.in the small cabin .next to the barrier and he reported that such crass behavior happens all the time...maybe 20 plus a day. Loss of income to the Tube?Earlier I had watched a scuffy lady jump on a 91H.bus at Lampton.She used the side intentionally.She also was consuming an open can of alcohol. I told the bus driver..but unlike some..took no action. When I challenged the girl as she got off at Clayponds Lane...her utterances were the usual.Bicycle thefts are another bain of peoples lives. Our Police Commander says "Things will get worse"Cllr MacGregor reports.on the headaches of such behavior.Hounslow town is bad enough. Is there a creep towards Chiswick? Creep? The scalleywags are already here.

Jim Lawes ● 966d30 Comments

A taste of things to come? When visiting friends in Jamaica in their gated estate, they were explaining their fear of venturing out because of the high levels of crime in the area. To which I suggested that maybe if the general population was paid more and treated better, they wouldn't want to shoot them!  Hollow laughter all round!

Peter Evans ● 964d

And it’s always interesting to note the mutual understanding between our local far right and Islamist fundamentalism.

Alastair Banton ● 964d

David Ward explained" I like the Arab way of dealing with such 'scallywags'. Chop their hand off "Well at least that should help with their Disability Benefit Claim, if not actually help them find a job.Or they could always follow the Walt Dabney route, from "Jabberwocky" and chop of their foot as well to help with the begging. michael adams

Michael Adams ● 964d

I like the Arab way of dealing with such 'scallywags'. Chop their hand off

david ward ● 964d

The Bedford Park Society have made a list of the food banks and other organisations who would love to have donations - do read the article.  If you have any other charities to suggest then please contact them.http://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=info&page=chiswickcharity126.htm https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/data/boroughs/hounslow-poverty-and-inequality-indicators/?indicator=people&comparator=englandRe the bikes there is also an interesting article on the front page.  Please register your bike with Bike Register and make sure you have all the details eg photo and frame number so that the police - should they find it - will be in a position to reunite you with it.http://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=community&link=http://neighbournet.com/server/common/hounscrim042.htmYou might also want to ask the Councils for some or some more secure bike parking - if there isn't any available nearby.There is now on-site inside cycle parking at Ealing Broadway.https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20053/transport/1985/cycling_in_hounslow/5 https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201176/cycling/3033/cycle_parking_and_security

Philippa Bond ● 964d

"That's what a 'cost of living crisis' and 'difficult government decisions' look like."Whilst it is probably true that most shoplifting in Chiswick is acts of desperation, bike theft is now a professional industry.  The thieves scout out the best bikes preferably in quiet streets and then turn up in a white van with really big bolt cutters and portable angle grinders.  At worst they need a couple of minutes to break locks, even supposedly high performance D-locks, throw the bike in the van and drive way.  Bike will either then by stripped for parts or sold on Gumtree, ebay or similar.

Justin Stephenson ● 964d

Some years ago I saw someone in M&S Ealing filling the bag on their wheelchair with meat and then zooming straight out of the store - not a security guard in sight - or a member of staff.   

Philippa Bond ● 964d

"That's what a 'cost of living crisis' and 'difficult government decisions' look like."And yet we are being told that there are more jobs available than workers to fill them and we should therefore encourage immigration. Something doesn't add up.

Richard Greenhough ● 964d

Jim' It appears M&S Chiswick do challenge people.... https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/chiswick-ms-staff-accused-of-racially-profiling-singaporean-politician/

Nick Jenkins ● 964d

Supermarkets and TfL take some loss into account and prices are fixed to cover this.  It is also worth remembering that supermarkets still throw stuff away that is over its sell by date, so paying customers have to cover those losses too.

Vivienne Cox ● 964d

People used to run out of the back door of Sainsbury's with bottles of booze because it was the booze shelves were very close to that door.  Too much of a temptation for some I suspect.That door was also badly positioned because people leaving pushing a trolley in front of them could walk straight into people walking towards the main entrance to the car park.  And as for the camber on that footpath it can't have been good for many knees or backs...

Philippa Bond ● 964d

I have seen them take fruit enough for one and walk out but gave uptelling the staff years ago, they do nothing Jim, in the cafe at Morrisons they used to help themselves to food and eat it, the staff just say don't try to stop them.

Janice Evans ● 964d

>>Fare dodging on the Tube is indeed something that happens; I see it aplenty on the Piccadilly Line in Acton. But if TfL were serious about it, then the turnstiles would be similar to those in New York<

Gordon McDonald ● 964d

I witnessed a woman wearing a beanie and mask (perfect disguise) putting seven rolls of meat into a bag at M&S Ealing Broadway, I told her I'd seen what she'd done as she headed to the door at which she scarpered. Presumably more expensive meat is tagged in some way as an alarm went off. A security guard appeared pretty quickly, asked me what she'd taken and then ran after her. She was caught. All that happens in these cases, it would appear, is that the shop worker can retrieve the goods. I think it is only inside the shop that the person can be apprehended. I've been surprised at a few people's response when I've told them i.e. they think I should have just let her go. I rather wonder whether I might have done that if it was a pack of sausages for example. This woman, I would say, was stealing to order (meat value over £130.00). She also, from what I saw, had an accomplice but they must have disappeared into the crowd.

Anne England ● 965d

M&S have had a shoplifting issue for ages. I can tell a few stories but not the place to do so.

Julian Pavey ● 965d

Are you now saying that whatever the ops opening topic one cant deviate away from that point? I will pick you up on that on other threads in that caseNot picking any fight, your reason about the back door was noted for being closed because of shoplifting and was noted as a "drastic action" by yourself Your summing up which I pointed out that there is an exit to the car park. It's called the main back entrance. Who would have known that?

Julian Pavey ● 965d

Shoplifting and fare dodging have been happening for years in Chiswick, usually with no sanction. Staff don’t want to get involved for the simple reason that they don’t want to get assaulted. The supermarket chains can swallow the loss. TfL is a basket case financially and one suspects management feel fate dodging is a low priority.The point about the police is very true. The absolute absence of any visible police presence encourages all sorts of anti-social and criminal behaviour. The Met’s problems have been well documented in recent months but even with a new commissioner promising change its unlikely that there will be a noticeable difference in policing at street level.

Simon Hayes ● 965d

Jim, I’m not sure what you expected from this thread that wouldn’t have left you ‘disappointed’.  Certain contributors are always going to snipe and/or be sniped at.  It’s why they post!I’ll just say that I agree with those suggesting that the problem might not be as new as you suppose but that if it is getting worse then it’s not altogether surprising given how many people are ‘feeling the pinch’, to put it mildly.  I also suspect that if we still had a police station and bobbies on the beat then that would act as more of a deterrent.On more than one occasion I have seen bus drivers giving the nod to desperate young people claiming to be unable to pay their fares.  I suspect that they have been unofficially authorised to do this but I have no proof.  As for shoplifters - maybe it’s the same.  One wouldn’t want to put the frighteners on, say, a penniless young mother just wanting to feed her baby.

Alastair Banton ● 965d

I agree that, anecdotally, there seems to be a raise in what a friend called 'crimes of desperation and opportunity'. I disagree, however, on the solution Jim seems to be proposing or on the idea of "fortress Chiswick" being besieged by the evil forces coming from outside that permeates from his posts.There are some who shoplift. Some of those who shoplift are cretinous teenagers, some are shoplifting because they have no other option - for instance the working poor, or the homeless population that has greatly increased in Chiswick over the past few years. Arresting them is pointless, for it doesn't change the reason why they're shoplifting: hunger, plain and simple.Fare dodging on the Tube is indeed something that happens; I see it aplenty on the Piccadilly Line in Acton. But if TfL were serious about it, then the turnstiles would be similar to those in New York.

Francis Sheehan ● 965d

This thread is about shoplifting. The closure of the door is about shoplifting. You’re just trying  to pick a fight. There was another door for a reason. So that not everyone was coming and going in the same direction. But you have to call  it laziness.

Maggie Dodge ● 965d

I'm disappointed  with the responses here.I wonder if you realise how serious the happenings are... creaping towards Chiswick.

Jim Lawes ● 965d

Yes,but the other entrance is to the car park.What you mean is if you use a non self checkout up the other end if one exists on any given day you have to walk a little the other way to get to exit that serves the car park.Sounds more like laziness to me

Julian Pavey ● 965d

They closed an exit to the car park. Which other supermarket do you know that closed an exit because of shoplifters.

Maggie Dodge ● 965d

"I don’t know of any other supermarket anywhere  that’s taken such drastic action"It was only a large door which was pretty much one way and just big enough for one person. They have a propper back entrance.Not sure whats drastic about closing a single door when you have a dedicated back entrance/exit

Julian Pavey ● 965d

Colonel Mustard, with the candle stick in the library.

Basil Finnis ● 965d

Sainsburys have had the ‘back’ door locked for years, because of shoplifting. I don’t know of any other supermarket anywhere  that’s taken such drastic action.

Maggie Dodge ● 965d

If some of the trousersing of massive fines from cameras on Hartington etc., were spent on providing secure places to lock up bikes, it might encourage more to cycle, and even turn the white elephant cycle lanes into something locals might use, on dry days, at least.

Russell Pearson ● 965d

That's what a 'cost of living crisis' and 'difficult government decisions' look like.

Peter Evans ● 965d

Have things got worse or have they always been such.?The other night there was a programme on how Londoners coped during the Blitz.It reported that crime rocketed during the blackouts. One shocking case was when a swanky nightclub took a direct hit and many were killed.Instead of helping the wounded some people were busy stripping the dead of their wallets and jewellery!Now, thank God we aren't being bombed but there always was and will always be horrible humans.

Adrian Irving ● 965d

Seems odd. I get it if general shop staff are told not to get involved, but they do seem to have dedicated security staff as well....

Rob Reynolds ● 966d