Westwood IGA owner Jay Jiang is targeted by pinching pensioners as shoplifting is on the rise

An Athol Park store owner, who released CCTV of himself being violently attacked by shoplifters, admits stealing is so rife that even 80-year-old pensioners are pinching from him.

The attackers are on the run after the savage bashing of an Athol Park supermarket owner. Picture: 7NEWS

An Athol Park supermarket owner has confessed that shoplifting is so rife at his store that even “old ladies” are at it.

Jay Jiang released CCTV earlier this week of a violent attack at his Westwood IGA after he confronted a pair of shoplifters.

He declared that Australia “is not a safe place anymore” after the terrifying attack.

But when The Advertiser spoke to Mr Jaing on Saturday, he admitted the incident was just the tip of the iceberg.

The store owner is currently targeted by shoplifters multiple times a day, every day.

“Some of them, they are very old and just like to pinch things,” Mr Jiang explained.

“So, 70 and 80-year-olds. We’ve got some very old ladies, they just say they forgot to pay … but if it happens a few or several times then maybe they are not really forgetting.”

Westwood IGA supermarket owner Jay Jiang has been left shaken after being violently attacked by alleged shoplifters in his own Athol Park store. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Mr Jiang explained that to claim the losses on insurance outweighs the loss.

“It’s not that simple, you have a $250 excess so you just let them steal, $20, $30, $50 stuff,” he added.

Mr Jiang says the pinching pensioners are currently the least of his problems. It’s the violence that comes hand-in-hand with younger offenders that’s his biggest concern.

The Athol Park supermarket owner released CCTV of the attack at his store. Picture: 7NEWS

It comes just days after Mr Jiang released confronting CCTV in which a shirtless man and a woman pin the store owner to the wall.

“Don’t f*** with us,” the woman can be heard yelling in the video.

The footage also shows the man swinging at another staff member in the store.

“F*** off,” he yells at the staff member.

Mr Jiang, who has owned Westwood IGA for the last six years, was taken to hospital with back pain and forced to take a week off work.

He released the footage to raise awareness of the plight of store owners, and in the hope that it would lead to an arrest.

“The police came and told me they couldn’t do anything because the footage looks like we are attacking them, or you can’t prove who started the fight,” Mr Jiang said.

“You can’t really blame the police, the justice system doesn’t allow them to do much … you know they catch those guys and maybe will be released right away and what’s the point.”