Brazen young thieves caught on CCTV bouncing into Portsmouth shop and merrily helping themselves to £500 worth of vapes before strolling out

A group of children, thought to be aged in their early teens, were caught on CCTV entering Vape N’ Beans on Commercial Road around 7.30pm before taking boxes of the most expensive vapes they could get their hands on. The audacious gang even engaged with a member of staff as the raid happened - the second such incident in the first few weeks the store has been open.

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The owner of the business, who does not want to be named, said other similar raids have been carried out on other stores in Commercial Road by youths and said: “This needs to be stopped or they will just carry on.”

CCTV footage showed the children waltzing into the vape shop, which is also set to open its cafe next month, with a female at the front of the group dancing in chanting: “Let’s go, let’s go”. Others in the posse can then be heard saying “give me a good one” in reference to vape boxes. Another thief is then heard saying to the staff member: “Thank you so much.”

The male worker, who does not attempt to intervene, then says: “It’s on camera.” This prompts another girl to turn around as the others leave and say: “It ain’t me bro.”

A Police Community Support Officer attended and a report of the incident with CCTV has been submitted to police.

The female business owner said: “The group walked in and robbed me of £500 worth of vapes. We had young people trying to steal before but they got chased off. This has happened to Greggs and multiple other shops in the area.

“If they carry on getting away with it they will continue. They just go in willy-nilly and steal things with no consequences. We told the police before but nothing happened.

“The kids didn’t care that my employee was sat there. They just helped themselves to boxes of the most expensive vapes. I could have the vapes locked away but I like customers to look through the stock when they come in.”