Social media used in war against theft

Desperate traders in Melbourne’s outer east are posting video footage and images of shoplifters on social media to protect their businesses from crippling financial losses. WATCH VIDEO

Desperate Knox shop owners are posting video footage and images of shoplifters on social media to protect their businesses from crippling financial losses.

CCTV stills of thieves stealing from shops are also plastered on “shame boards” in stores.

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Boronia bottleshop Cellarbrations owner Ian Zhang said the shame board had stopped thieves coming back to the shop, while the videos on Facebook had attracted thousands of views.

“One of our videos had 200,000 views and more than 2000 comments and 1000 people shared it,” Mr Zhang said.

He said those on CCTV had been identified by the online community.

“They’ve all been found. People tell me their names and Facebook pages and even where they live,” Mr Zhang said.

“A parent saw his son on Facebook and was worried about his kid being kicked out of school, so he apologised and paid for the items and asked me to take the video down — which I did.”

CCTV footage of a woman putting a can of alcohol in her bag.

He said while the thefts were usually cans of pre-mixed alcohol and amounted to less than $1000 a year, it still hit the hip pocket.

“It’s still killing us because we have lots of competition around us,” Mr Zhang said.

“We’re a local small business and we try and keep prices cheap.”

Kilsyth pet supply shop Fish and Feather manager Chris Rout said there was a shame board in the store, and he also put CCTV footage on Facebook.

He said it was already hard for small businesses to survive with rising costs and having to compete with people buying goods online.

But Mr Rout said the number of people stealing had worsened.

“We have had to put on a security guard on the weekends,” Mr Rout said.

“The big supermarkets accept it (shoplifting) and have put policies and procedures in place.

“The staff aren’t allowed to apprehend or even report it. We’re training people to shoplift.”

Liberty Victoria policy committee member Gemma Cafarella said while she could understand the desire from small business owners to protect themselves from theft, sharing CCTV on social media was similar to vigilantism.

“It’s like the public are the judge and jury without taking into consideration a person’s circumstances,” Ms Cafarella said.

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