A private investigator has revealed why shoplifters steal exorbitant amounts of meat after an alleged thief was caught dashing down a busy Sydney road.
A supermarket boss has been filmed taking down a thief who made off with a suitcase filled with meat.
The footage shows the individual pulling a suitcase filled with stolen cuts of beef from Harris Farm Markets in Randwick, Sydney, before being tackled by the CEO of the supermarket.
Business owners claim that the soaring price of meat has made it a valuable item on the black market, and that it can be used to purchase drugs.
Seasoned private investigator Shane Windred has noted a rise in shoplifting rings nicking large quantities of expensive meat, worth up to $50 a kilogram.
According to Windred, shoplifters steal hundreds of dollars worth of meat, which they then trade with drug dealers for other illegal items.
“I’m seeing eye fillets, scotch fillets (being stolen)… up to 30 trays at a time,” he told 7News.
“What they’re doing is taking $500 or $600 dollars worth of meat to the drug dealer and they use it as currency.”
The man in the video is reportedly a serial shoplifter who has taken thousands of dollars worth of meat from the family-owned business. Police questioned him but released him without charge while they conduct further investigations.
The cost of shoplifting across the retail sector is estimated to be $9.5 billion per year, according to the Australian Retailers Association.
The cost is eventually passed on to other consumers through increased mark-ups in stores.
The CEO of Harris Farm has taken supermarket theft into his own hands – making a citizen’s arrest after a chase through the streets of Randwick. The supermarket says the man with the suitcase is a repeat offender who had stolen thousands of dollars worth of stock @7NewsSydney pic.twitter.com/pW2kED7hU6
— Amy Clements (@amy_clements7) February 13, 2023
The data shows that Coles and Woolworths supermarkets and Myer and David Jones department stores are the top losers to shoplifting.
The current cost of living crisis in Australia has worsened with the inflation rate reaching a 32-year high of 7.8 per cent. The consumer price index from December shows the fastest annual pace since 1990, with the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, describing it as “unacceptably high.”
Originally published as Wild moment supermarket boss takes down man stealing a suitcase of meat
Extracted from The Mercury
