‘We know who they are’: Gilbert St IGA worker Prajwol Risal shares insight of rise in petty crimes

An Adelaide CBD IGA has revealed how petty crime affects their store and is putting shoplifters on notice.

A popular CBD supermarket has revealed the extent of their stress which is brought on by petty thieves nicking items from their shelves – and sometimes even turning violent.

A Gilbert St IGA worker Prajwol Risal has told The Advertiser their store – as well as their sister store on Hutt St – have become frequent targets of petty crime over the past 18 months.

Mr Risal said it culminated to a point where their owners created a wall of shame which features the shoplifters who habitually target the supermarket.

Gilbert Street IGA Manager Prajwol Risal stands in front of the Wall of shame. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Their face and crime clearly printed on the coloured A4 sheets of paper.

However, Mr Risal said the idea of the wall isn’t to shame people.

“I think the purpose of the display is more to act as a deterrent,” he said. “It’s so if those people want to come back, they’ll see that we know who they are and what they did, and they might panic and leave.

“It’s also so others know that we have CCTV cameras and we check them frequently.”

Mr Risal said the most common offence is people stealing.

“People of all different ages come in here to steal,” he said. “It’s not just young kids.

“They either come in and stuff their pockets or rucksacks, they just fill them up with food, snacks, drinks, it’s whatever they see.

“In our Hutt St store we also have a little meat cabinet that people like to take things from.”

Mr Risal added that people turned violent on the store workers if they’re called out for their actions.

The worker also says that all the workers have to complete modules on how to handle shoppers who steal or become aggressive towards the staff.

This comes two weeks after one of their store attendants was threatened by a man with a pair of pliers before he stole cash from the till and ran off from the store.

Fortunately, the person was not physically injured.

Police are still on the lookout for the suspect who was described to be about 30 years old with a short beard. He was wearing a hooded blue or grey jumper with black pants and boots.

IGA shopper Jeff Carr. Picture: Dasha Havrilenko.

IGA shopper Gail Carnes. Picture: Dasha Havrilenko.

One IGA regular shopper Jeff Carr said although he hasn’t witnessed the theft himself – he did note that the wall of shame appeared in the store just over a year ago.

“I think that the wall shows theft has become a more concerning issue for the store,” he said. “I think that wall is an effective way to combat that.”

However, Mr Carr said he isn’t sure as to what caused the spike, instead he thinks it’s a “multitude of contributing factors” including youths doing dares or adults experiencing the cost of living crisis.

Another shopper and ex-local Gail Carnes said she believes it is “the population density in the area” which has caused the spike in crime.

“I used to live across the road from the store,” she said. “But back then we didn’t have all these high rise apartments in the area. I think the increased population is a major contributing factor.”