The St. Thomas Police Service is issuing a warning to local retailers as police deal with a rapid rise in shoplifting cases over the last couple of years. It’s no surprise to staff at Purely Wicked, a novelty shop on Talbot Street.
They say they often don’t realize they’ve been a victim of shoplifting until it’s too late. “A lot of small items go missing,” said long time staff member Jennifer Childs. “Our crystal table is where we notice a lot of sticky fingers.
We will only find out some item is missing when we only have one of them, and someone has ordered it online, we come out to try and find it for someone’s order, and it’s gone. You know, it costs us money,” she said. St.
Thomas police say it experienced a 23 per cent increase in shoplifting calls in 2023 over 2022. In an email to CTV News, Corporate Communications Coordinator Samantha Wakefield said that for this year, “the service is projecting to see the same level of reported shoplifting calls for service from 2023.” A notice from St.
Thomas Police to local retailers said “newly released national crime statistics show a 28 per cent increase in shoplifting incidents under $5,000 across Canada. In total, Canada experienced 155,280 reported incidents of shoplifting in 2023, marking an 18 per cent rise from 2022.” CTV Public Safety Analyst Chris Lewis speaks to CTV News on Oct.
24, 2024. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London) CTV News Public Safety Analyst and retired OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis s.