Portsmouth public vow to take matters into "own hands" against shoplifters after Co-op incident

It comes after a suspected female thief was allegedly thrown out of  a Co-op store on Tangier Road around 7.30pm last Saturday by a male customer. The 37-year-old was rushed to hospital after banging her head against a metal railing outside the shop, with locals saying she was “seriously injured”. 

However, police said on Monday she had been discharged from hospital and no arrests had been made - which remains the case, the force has confirmed. The road was cordoned off with a crime scene set up as police stood guard.

The incident has served to highlight the plight of shop workers, with residents fearing the situation of dealing with shoplifters is spiralling out of control. One person, writing on social media, said: “It's getting to the point that the public feel they have to intervene because shops aren't providing sufficient security and the police aren't interested. I'm not condoning the public taking things into their own hands but people are sick and tired of thieves getting away with it all the time.”

Another wrote: “How many times has the police been called out and never bothered to turn up when shoplifting has been reported? I know staff have been assaulted when confronting shoplifters at the store.”

A third posted: “The Co-op is a lovely shop. The staff are lovely and they were very supportive in lockdown to the public. Thieves target these places which is a shame.” 

Another person said: “As someone who has been the shop worker in these situations I feel happy for the fact that the customer stepped up the way shop workers can't.”

A former shop worker wrote: “When I worked in the McColl’s just down the road we used to see loads of people running past with bags full of stolen meat from the Co-op… they used to also try it in McColl’s too but because it was smaller we could see what they were doing and got them out before they could steal.”

A fifth person added: “It's about time we all stood up to them (shoplifters).”

A spokesperson for the Co-op said: “The incident at Tangier Road is the subject of an ongoing police investigation and as such, we're unable to provide a comment."

But when asked by The News what support was being offered to protect staff, the spokesperson added: “Southern Co-op will offer appropriate support to colleagues who are directly impacted by any security incident.”