The supermarket meat bandit who's allegedly struck 27 times | A Current Affair

he's a thief who really really loves beef a supermarket Bandit who's allegedly struck 27 times and he's not swiping sausages or pinching pork chops he's taking the fancy stuff and one store is making sure he and others won't get away with it and we call them additions when they magically make products disappear forget gold or jewelry meat is now the main target for shoplifters across Australia meat is the number one item of choice that the medician are going after but the bad news for them is that CCTV and facial recognition technology is making the job of tracking down these beef Bandits so much easier I always say it's not about if you get caught but when you get caught Wu beef cuts are among the most expensive items in our supermarkets selling for up to 120 $5 per kilo and those price tags are now attracting a new level of attention from people chasing the old five finger discount walking into the supermarket without a care in the world this alleged thief in high VI is heading straight for the meti packing his cooler bag full of the priciest cuts once he's got enough calmly walking out through the checkout area without stopping to pay the whole alleged crime completed in under 5 minutes this other guy for us is a Serial offender hit our stores 27 times which is a huge number John Paul Drake is director of Drake's supermarkets he claims new tracking software linked directly with police has kept tabs on the total damage bill this same man has allegedly racked up during his 27 visits to Drake's stores the total bill a whopping 12,000 bucks worth of meat we know these products aren't going to people in need you know people in need don't need Wu and Angus pure beef to have on their tables JP Drake's strategy to combat shoplifters involves naming and shaming them on social media videos I was driving around in my Batmobile and I saw the bat signal at wav I knew they needed me his fictional role as Batman sparked by this encounter with another alleged meat Thief in one of Drake's Adelaide stores they think I'm hiding in the shadows but I am the shadow I just happened to be in the store at that particular time standing at the front end and this person didn't even put things in that Eniro bag filled up his arms and tried to walk out the store the tent standoff at the front door all captured on security cameras as JP stopped this wannabe beef bandit in his tracks said look mate you're not walking out without me and he said yeah I'm walking out out you can't do anything about it and I said unfortunately for you I can JP relieving him of his loot before the man delivers a kick to the store's front door I said look mate I know things are tough out there but this is not the place or time to be trying to walk out with products like this at the supermarket where we're running a business this is not a place to do that Professor Gary Mortimer from the quut business school says Rising meat prices have ensured it's become a prime target if you're buying a full Primal so a full fillet it might be $89.90 even $110 uh three or four of those and there's $3 or $400 going out the door uh with one shoplifter meat theft increased by 85% last year according to data from retail crime intelligence platform AAR there were more than 67,000 incidents of stolen meat recorded nationally with beef the most popular Target followed by chicken lamb and pork as the cost of living crisis has continued to I guess aod household budgets we're seeing an increasing lift in theft in that particular area a R's Research indicates organized retail crime groups are driving the spike in meat theft they've been targeted for a few reasons and we've been told by sa police that these have been targeted so they can actually swap packets of meats for drugs and cash as well but the intentional theft is often organized by crime gangs they're they're shopping to a list they' got a list of products that they're seeking uh to onell AAR works with supermarkets such as Drakes along with Kohls and Woolworths to track shoplifting incidents and report to authorities uh you know the technology that's now being used enables uh you know retails to share that information with police uh and eventually when that person is picked up uh they won't just be picked up for one shoplifting offense but also multiple offenses the aor software has been tracking the 27 incidents involving this alleged Defender which have been provided to south Australia police who are now investigating we are talking about probably 1 or 2% of our customers it is a small number that is doing the damage for everyone you know what's required here a stake out

Channel: A Current Affair

Views: 358,870

Keywords: a current affair, a current affair reporter, a current affair australia, channel 9 news, 9 news australia, australia news, world news, australian news, channel 9, steal, stealing, crime, crime investigation, investigation

Id: 31nJEdY4Z0s

Length: 5min 28sec (328 seconds)

Published: Thu May 09 2024