The arrested man who wanted to steal 600 euros worth of groceries from the Albert Heijn XL in Tilburg on Friday was not very good at it. Employees of the branch tell Omroep Brabant that they realized the attempted theft after five minutes. “Who does that now?”
An employee of the branch who has worked there for eight years was also at work on Friday afternoon. He would like to tell his story, but only anonymously. According to him, it was almost immediately clear what was going on.
The arrested man was with an accomplice, who managed to escape. “They acted like they didn’t belong together. One had a basket, the other had a shopping cart. The accomplice kept throwing items from the shopping cart into the cart. Well, when you see people overloading things from a shopping cart into someone else’s cart, you notice it. Who does that now?”
After a few minutes, the store staff became aware of the theft. The thieves were anything but subtle. “They were then in the store for another fifteen minutes to transfer items.”
“The accomplice saw that and immediately slipped outside. We lost him.”
The person with the cart wanted to exit through the self-scan gates. The accomplice walked away with an empty basket through the regular cash registers. “We immediately stopped the man at the gates with all the things in his cart. The accomplice saw this and immediately slipped out. We lost him,” says the employee.
One of the security guards, Daan, can confirm that story. He was not there yesterday, but he did speak to the fellow security guard who stopped the man. “The expensive packaging in the cart was protected with several rolls of toilet paper,” says Daan.
The accomplice then paid for two bottles after walking around the store for twenty minutes. That receipt was passed on to his companion with the full shopping cart in the store. “The receipt for those bottles had not yet been scanned at the gates at the exit. With that receipt, the man with the cart could have left the store.”
The fact that he did not succeed is due to the attentive store staff. They now know the tricks of the trade. According to the security guard, this type of theft has been occurring weekly lately.
“People are so antisocial.”
“This type of theft usually involves at least two men, but sometimes three or four. The others then stand on the lookout and walk a different route. These usually concern people with Eastern European descent.”
According to Daan, theft happens so often that he hardly thinks it’s news anymore. “I mean, we caught 636 people here last year for all kinds of theft. We have also been using this method for years. People are so antisocial. They think: we’ll just try it.”
The anonymous employee completely agrees. “When I see such a theft happening, I naturally find it strange. It’s strange that people are so antisocial to keep trying. But yes, it happens so often, it doesn’t really surprise me anymore,” he concludes.
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