Highpoint staff helpless to stop shoplifters, girl gangs raiding stores

A supermarket is the latest shop to be hit by thieves at Highpoint, with the store so badly ransacked that empty packaging is left on shelves. It comes as customers say they’re not surprised by recent crime reports at the complex.

Highpoint staff say rampant theft at the shopping centre isn’t slowing down.

Groups of teens are stealing whatever they like from stores at Highpoint Shopping Centre without even bothering to try and hide their brazen shoplifting.

And staff say they are helpless to stop the raids, blaming lax security at the centre for the crimes.

A supermarket manager who had only been in the job three months said theft in the west was “typically a lot worse”.

He said after a busy period, the store was usually left ransacked.

“You see empty packaging all over the shelves,” he said.

He also said CCTV was a waste of time.

“It’s reactive. It doesn’t do much to stop it from happening.”

Shoppers have taken to the Leader’s Facebook page to say they aren’t surprised retailers are experiencing rampant theft.

“This has been going on for as long as I’ve been alive,” said Simon Antonio Vallone.

Penny Daly and Abeer Jawaid both said the centre was called “Knifepoint” for a reason.

Employees working at a popular makeup store told the Leader that every few weeks the same group of women aged in their late teens to early 20s would stroll into the store and casually take “whatever they want”.

“It’s a massive problem. They come in and split up and just take what they want and leave. They don’t even try to hide it,” a staff member, who did not want to be named, said.

Shots outside Highpoint shopping centre of cars and groups of people for a story on crime at the centre. Pictured Friday 31st May, 2019.

She said her colleagues had tried standing up to the women but stopped after receiving threats.

“They told us they would wait in the carpark for us,” she said.

People working at five different clothing stores also said theft was an ongoing problem, especially on Thursday nights when the centre was open late.

“Security don’t do anything. I call them and they come half an hour later,” a General Pants employee said.

“I run after them and grab [the clothes] back.”

A gang of girls has told staff they would wait for them in the carpark if they tried to stop them.

General Pants staff said they often found security tags in jacket hoods and pockets that were removed in the changing rooms by thieves using a detacher hook bought online.

A woman working at Superdry said shoplifting was at its worst during the school holidays.

“Especially during school holidays. Young girls are sneaky, boys have big bags and just take jackets and run,” she said.

Highpoint centre manager Ryan Ling said the safety and security of visitors was “of the utmost priority to Highpoint centre management”.

“Individuals who breach Highpoint’s conditions of entry can be banned from entering the centre … individuals who fail to comply to banning notices can be charged by Police with trespass,” he said.

But banning people from the centre did not appear to be a working because one employee said “they just come back”.

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Mr Ling said management had “a very close working relationship with Victoria Police” who had a regular presence in the centre.

Senior Sergeant Ely Reynolds said Footscray police had a community safety team that operated during peak periods and worked with centre management to address security and safety concerns.

“Over the last school holidays we ran two operations which involved Transit Police and PTV authorised officers,” Sen-Sgt Reynolds said.

Crime Stat Agency figures showed shoplifting at Highpoint had fallen from 299 offences in 2014 to 71 last year.

But public order and security offences had jumped from just one in 2017 to eight last year.

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