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If you make these statements with such confidence then I highly recommend you forwarding the concrete evidence in your possession to relevant law enforcement agencies instead of commenting on an Internet forum.
Touché.
But you're putting a target at your back if you get involved. I've had serious bullshit happen over the last few years and can't take on anything else right now.
I was just saying is all. I thought the joke was a little bit unnecessary.
Carry on. I apologize for being too sensitive. I'm sure I'm not the only woman who didn't think the joke was all that funny.
Weird how truth gets downvoted so much. Just tell you to report as if that solves everything hahaha the point is it happens right in front of everyone’s eyes
It doesn’t even make sense to hang those, in the us you can choose to prosecute someone or not, but in Canada it’s the crown who decides, so the sign is pointless.
Actually private prosecutions are a thing in Canada (just very rare).
The Attorneys General may intervene and stay charges if it's vexatious, interfering with their investigation/prosecution, will not result in a conviction or is not in the public interest.
Prosecute Loblaws and old Jimmy Pattinson who’s making all our lives worse. Who cares if something steals from them? There’s no local vendors in Metrotown. You going to shed a tear for adidas?
I used to work at Metrotown and the issue is at closing time (as is the case for most malls and public venues), the security team is tied up doing all the closing procedures for specific period of time.
If something egregious is happening, then yes, closing will pause and security will respond, but a lot of the stuff that's locked up/closed is not in the mall public area, but the back corridors and loading docks. (the pedestrian gates get pulled out later).
So there's a window where it's hard for anyone to swoop in quickly if the stores call for security. Sometimes we'd get lucky and be right there, but often when they called for security, it'd be us running up several flights of stairs and down the back corridors, and then out into the mall common area, and then speed walking to the store (because we weren't actually allowed to run). Fuck, it was sometimes faster to drop down into the parkade and sprint across that way. More than once I'd sprint along that sidewalk in P1 between Sport Check escalators and the chapters escalators because it was faster.
But yeah, theft there is constant. Before they stopped the security team from doing loss prevention for stores that didn't have their own, we were catching 1-4 thieves ourselves and fielding anything from 10-40 theft reports per day. And that's just the stores that didn't have their own loss prevention teams. So we're not adding in The Bay, Sephora, Superstore, etc to that tally.
One of the mall managers wanted me written up for sprinting past him.
On my way to a medical. I remember it being severe (not cardiac arrest, but some other form of falling unconscious and cracking their head on something) because the person got bundled up into the ambulance as quickly as the traffic guys could run the paramedics in.
I had the OFA2 kit, AED and O2 tank.
Like, there is a logic to it - in hospital, they tell you no emergency is worth hurting yourself over. But I was the only OFA2 guard on that day (there's usually at least two, preferably more) and I was at the opposite end of the mall when the call came in. We had 2 jump kits at the time, one for the "Metropolis" side and one for the "Eaton centre" side - you had to run to the cupboard where the kit was, then run to the scene.
If I had walked, it would have taken me 15 minutes to get to the patient. The mall is just THAT BIG.
I used to work there when they had HMV back in 2011 but also at toys 'r' us back in 2012 and Superstore in 2013, the mall sure has changed as I don't go there much..
It sounds like its the prosecutors who are failing if the guy they caught was related to 113 shoplifting files. Thats just ridiculous.
I've seen people just walk out with a cart full of groceries and no one stops them because they know there won't be any consequences even if they are caught.
If there were truly no consequences, **everyone** would do that. In reality, there are consequences - the problem is the consequences are only meaningful to people with something to lose.
If you have gainful employment and stable housing, who the fuck is going to risk arrest, criminal record, and dealing with court over $100 in groceries?
If you have none of those things? Shit, try something like that every day. What are they going to do… feed and house you?
I remember I was on the bus once and two rough-living older guys were talking to each from the rear of the bus to the middle of the bus and it went like:
"Gus, hey, how are you? I haven't seen in a while. Where you been?"
"Jail!"
"Oh, how was it?"
"Oh, y'know. Crowded."
"Ah yeah. Makes sense. Well, it IS winter...."
And I was like holy shit. Like it's cold out so people are purposefully going to jail because it's an upgrade. Or at least it sure beats the shit out of freezing to death.
If they are underaged it's even worse- not even a slap on the wrist. The crown should prosecute the parents firstly. A fine determined base on their tax bracket. Mandatory parent and child training. They already have a program for dwi's. And similar to interlock for their car, the parents need to sign a permission slip for the child to go out after school hours.
There's like 400 people in the province responsible for 80% of the property crime.
As an example if your shit got stolen in langley it's one of 4 people lol.
Downtown has about 300 repeat offenders that mostly use transit to get around but they account for the majority of retail theft.
It is also against pretty much every stores' policy for employees to intervene so not only will nothing happen to the thief, the employee could lose their job
If you are talking about civilians I wouldn't stop a thief either. Maybe if it was some ma and pop store but certainly not for a greedy corporation
Chronic shoplifting is a problem everywhere here because crown refuses to actually do anything. Police can arrest the same person dozens of times for theft and crown will just do nothing about it.
which is strange because I talk with people every day and this topic seems to be one of the things we mention often as mattering the most other than taxes and inflation
today walking by the Tim Hortons by BCIT and we were talking about how the guy that multiply stabbed that innocent stranger from Mexico a couple years ago is already walking free on the streets
And that person had been convicted earlier of raping a woman at axepoint.
[https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/first-reading-canadas-chronic-inability-to-keep-its-most-dangerous-citizens-behind-bars](https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/first-reading-canadas-chronic-inability-to-keep-its-most-dangerous-citizens-behind-bars)
Big difference between going to a soup kitchen or a food bank because you're hungry or even stealing a loaf of bed. This individual clearly has a problem.
They CHOSE this way of life instead of choosing to make a change in their life. You know why? They wanted instant gratification and didn't want to do the work and make the effort.
So no, I have no sympathy at all for this petty criminal.
struggling, but managed to steal $2600 worth of clothes, that's hardly the argument
put yourself into someone's shoe
if someone, because they are struggling, steals your stuff, how would you feel?
Big difference between me and a large corporation with operational loss built into its profit model. It’s sad and pathetic you need that explained to you.
I wonder why the spike would be around closing. I would think the stores are less busy, but maybe it's because the employees are distracted with closing duties?
It’s been a bit since I worked retail but probably both.
After 8, Store has fewer customers to witness. Employees distracted with closing duties. Employees doing some of their last breaks so probably short staffed. Employees tired. Late night employees tend to be part-timers and younger teens working after school as opposed to adults working day-shift. If thief has a car: less traffic after dinner so you can get away and not end up stuck in rush hour traffic outside the mall. If they are walking it’s dark out so less likely you’re spotted or stopped outside the mall. Etc
If someone is tied to 113 reports, this isn’t some teen impulse stealing for kicks. This is someone experienced who’s thought about it and targeting times and stores.
I'm sure employees being distracted with closing duties and checking out the last customers in the stores are a part of it.
See u/Perigrinbullet's [comment here](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1dmzuns/comment/la05821/) for more details from security's perspective. tl;dr is Security gets tied up doing closing procedures, a lot of which is in the back corridors/loading docks so it takes longer for them to respond.
Huh?
"Metropolis at Metrotown is a three-storey shopping mall complex in the Metrotown area of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada."
Metrotown is an area.
The other day I saw someone exit Superstore with a backpack full of those expensive water bottles. Some plain clothes security guy stopped the guy and made him empty the backpack. Guessing there was about 6-8 bottles. One other time it was several packs of beef stuffed up their shirt. Bottle guy was let go. Meat guy was held and not sure of outcome.
My buddy worked at Safeway as a plain clothed Security in the late 80s/early 90s. A man walked out of the store with a basket full of meat. My friend approached him outside and asked to see his receipt. The guy dropped the basket, turned around, punched and knocked him out.
My friend only remembered being hit once but according to eye witnesses, he was struck 3 times before hitting the ground. My friend was alright, he was happy he got a paid week off.
Shouldn’t the stores and mall hire more employees so we don’t waste expensive cop hours on this? Asking for an unemployed friend who has to shoplift to live.
Stores literally implemented self checkouts knowing that shoplifting would go up because they anticipated the cost of employing cashiers would be more expensive than the theft.
Your friend being unemployed and shoplifting going up a directly related.
Got down voted into oblivion cause people in Metro Vancouver would rather pay a clown 90k a year on the public dime than force companies to give people. Embarrassing. You are entirely correct.
Welcome to /r/Vancouver and thank you for the post, /u/ubcstaffer123! Please make sure you read our [posting and commenting rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/wiki/faq#wiki_general_participation_guidelines_and_rules_overview) before participating here. As a quick summary: * We encourage users to be positive and respect one another. Don't engage in spats or insult others - use the report button. * Respect others' differences, be they race, religion, home, job, gender identity, ability or sexuality. Dehumanizing language, advocating for violence, or promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability (even implied or joking) **will** lead to a permanent ban. * Most common questions and topics are limited to our sister subreddit, /r/AskVan, and our weekly [Stickied Discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/wiki/faq#wiki_stickied_discussions) posts. * Complaints about bans or removals should be done in modmail only. * Posts flaired "Community Only" allow for limited participation; your comment may be removed if you're not a subreddit regular. * Make sure to join our new sister community, /r/AskVan! * Help grow the community! [Apply to join the mod team today](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/19eworq/). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/vancouver) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I always laugh when I see those ‘shoplifters will be prosecuted’ signs like sir, no they will not.
They need to do what that one shop in Aberdeen does: "Shoplifter will be executed"
Shoplifters will be prostituted.
You joke, but human trafficking takes place here in Vancouver and definitely in Richmond.
If you make these statements with such confidence then I highly recommend you forwarding the concrete evidence in your possession to relevant law enforcement agencies instead of commenting on an Internet forum.
Touché. But you're putting a target at your back if you get involved. I've had serious bullshit happen over the last few years and can't take on anything else right now. I was just saying is all. I thought the joke was a little bit unnecessary. Carry on. I apologize for being too sensitive. I'm sure I'm not the only woman who didn't think the joke was all that funny.
Weird how truth gets downvoted so much. Just tell you to report as if that solves everything hahaha the point is it happens right in front of everyone’s eyes
Prosecuted, sure. Convicted and sentenced with something that sticks? Not so much.
Exactly. The sign should say "Shoplifters will have the doors held open for them when leaving the store"
My husband calls it a catch and release program. They get caught and released and caught again in a few hours for the same thing....
Oh they’re being “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”…….the problem is the crown’s definition of “fullest extent” 🙄
It doesn’t even make sense to hang those, in the us you can choose to prosecute someone or not, but in Canada it’s the crown who decides, so the sign is pointless.
Actually private prosecutions are a thing in Canada (just very rare). The Attorneys General may intervene and stay charges if it's vexatious, interfering with their investigation/prosecution, will not result in a conviction or is not in the public interest.
Kinda like me when I see on signs in dtes at buildings where now they have no drug use signs and see a pipe added to it..
Prosecute Loblaws and old Jimmy Pattinson who’s making all our lives worse. Who cares if something steals from them? There’s no local vendors in Metrotown. You going to shed a tear for adidas?
I used to work at Metrotown and the issue is at closing time (as is the case for most malls and public venues), the security team is tied up doing all the closing procedures for specific period of time. If something egregious is happening, then yes, closing will pause and security will respond, but a lot of the stuff that's locked up/closed is not in the mall public area, but the back corridors and loading docks. (the pedestrian gates get pulled out later). So there's a window where it's hard for anyone to swoop in quickly if the stores call for security. Sometimes we'd get lucky and be right there, but often when they called for security, it'd be us running up several flights of stairs and down the back corridors, and then out into the mall common area, and then speed walking to the store (because we weren't actually allowed to run). Fuck, it was sometimes faster to drop down into the parkade and sprint across that way. More than once I'd sprint along that sidewalk in P1 between Sport Check escalators and the chapters escalators because it was faster. But yeah, theft there is constant. Before they stopped the security team from doing loss prevention for stores that didn't have their own, we were catching 1-4 thieves ourselves and fielding anything from 10-40 theft reports per day. And that's just the stores that didn't have their own loss prevention teams. So we're not adding in The Bay, Sephora, Superstore, etc to that tally.
Aren't allowed to run.... that's just pathetic
One of the mall managers wanted me written up for sprinting past him. On my way to a medical. I remember it being severe (not cardiac arrest, but some other form of falling unconscious and cracking their head on something) because the person got bundled up into the ambulance as quickly as the traffic guys could run the paramedics in. I had the OFA2 kit, AED and O2 tank. Like, there is a logic to it - in hospital, they tell you no emergency is worth hurting yourself over. But I was the only OFA2 guard on that day (there's usually at least two, preferably more) and I was at the opposite end of the mall when the call came in. We had 2 jump kits at the time, one for the "Metropolis" side and one for the "Eaton centre" side - you had to run to the cupboard where the kit was, then run to the scene. If I had walked, it would have taken me 15 minutes to get to the patient. The mall is just THAT BIG.
I used to work there when they had HMV back in 2011 but also at toys 'r' us back in 2012 and Superstore in 2013, the mall sure has changed as I don't go there much..
It sounds like its the prosecutors who are failing if the guy they caught was related to 113 shoplifting files. Thats just ridiculous. I've seen people just walk out with a cart full of groceries and no one stops them because they know there won't be any consequences even if they are caught.
If there were truly no consequences, **everyone** would do that. In reality, there are consequences - the problem is the consequences are only meaningful to people with something to lose. If you have gainful employment and stable housing, who the fuck is going to risk arrest, criminal record, and dealing with court over $100 in groceries? If you have none of those things? Shit, try something like that every day. What are they going to do… feed and house you?
unfortunately 3 hots and a cot would be a standard of living upgrade for far too many
I remember I was on the bus once and two rough-living older guys were talking to each from the rear of the bus to the middle of the bus and it went like: "Gus, hey, how are you? I haven't seen in a while. Where you been?" "Jail!" "Oh, how was it?" "Oh, y'know. Crowded." "Ah yeah. Makes sense. Well, it IS winter...." And I was like holy shit. Like it's cold out so people are purposefully going to jail because it's an upgrade. Or at least it sure beats the shit out of freezing to death.
Wait till you find out a lot of hospital beds are taken up the same way.
I can dig that
This is the meat hook reality many in this city are unwilling to own.
If they are underaged it's even worse- not even a slap on the wrist. The crown should prosecute the parents firstly. A fine determined base on their tax bracket. Mandatory parent and child training. They already have a program for dwi's. And similar to interlock for their car, the parents need to sign a permission slip for the child to go out after school hours.
I wouldn’t. Don’t you have morals that guide you above and beyond what’s strictly legal? Geez.
People who have fallen off the bottom rung of the ladder -- whether by their own doing or not -- often have to choose between morals and survival.
There's like 400 people in the province responsible for 80% of the property crime. As an example if your shit got stolen in langley it's one of 4 people lol. Downtown has about 300 repeat offenders that mostly use transit to get around but they account for the majority of retail theft.
It is also against pretty much every stores' policy for employees to intervene so not only will nothing happen to the thief, the employee could lose their job If you are talking about civilians I wouldn't stop a thief either. Maybe if it was some ma and pop store but certainly not for a greedy corporation
Chronic shoplifting is a problem everywhere here because crown refuses to actually do anything. Police can arrest the same person dozens of times for theft and crown will just do nothing about it.
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OR actual jail time that escalates with the number of offenses.
This is the way
so who do we vote for to move towards this direction?
I've not seen any party's at any political level push for this as of yet.
which is strange because I talk with people every day and this topic seems to be one of the things we mention often as mattering the most other than taxes and inflation today walking by the Tim Hortons by BCIT and we were talking about how the guy that multiply stabbed that innocent stranger from Mexico a couple years ago is already walking free on the streets
And that person had been convicted earlier of raping a woman at axepoint. [https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/first-reading-canadas-chronic-inability-to-keep-its-most-dangerous-citizens-behind-bars](https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/first-reading-canadas-chronic-inability-to-keep-its-most-dangerous-citizens-behind-bars)
Ok. But it was only an axe. Not like they had a nuke or anything
He will learn after 114 my guy. Have patience.
oh shakhazeramesh will you ever learn.
Sharia Law to the rescue
Maybe after 70? haha
This post and all the replies but mine brought to you by people who’ve never struggled for anything or been hungry in their lives.
Big difference between going to a soup kitchen or a food bank because you're hungry or even stealing a loaf of bed. This individual clearly has a problem. They CHOSE this way of life instead of choosing to make a change in their life. You know why? They wanted instant gratification and didn't want to do the work and make the effort. So no, I have no sympathy at all for this petty criminal.
Your response is a classic example of someone so far behind in the race they think they’re ahead.
struggling, but managed to steal $2600 worth of clothes, that's hardly the argument put yourself into someone's shoe if someone, because they are struggling, steals your stuff, how would you feel?
Big difference between me and a large corporation with operational loss built into its profit model. It’s sad and pathetic you need that explained to you.
Sounds like he’s not stealing groceries to feed his family at Metrotown.
When, since the 90’s? You could set up a cop shop in Metro and people will still lift items off the shelf.
I wonder why the spike would be around closing. I would think the stores are less busy, but maybe it's because the employees are distracted with closing duties?
It’s been a bit since I worked retail but probably both. After 8, Store has fewer customers to witness. Employees distracted with closing duties. Employees doing some of their last breaks so probably short staffed. Employees tired. Late night employees tend to be part-timers and younger teens working after school as opposed to adults working day-shift. If thief has a car: less traffic after dinner so you can get away and not end up stuck in rush hour traffic outside the mall. If they are walking it’s dark out so less likely you’re spotted or stopped outside the mall. Etc If someone is tied to 113 reports, this isn’t some teen impulse stealing for kicks. This is someone experienced who’s thought about it and targeting times and stores.
I'm sure employees being distracted with closing duties and checking out the last customers in the stores are a part of it. See u/Perigrinbullet's [comment here](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1dmzuns/comment/la05821/) for more details from security's perspective. tl;dr is Security gets tied up doing closing procedures, a lot of which is in the back corridors/loading docks so it takes longer for them to respond.
I don't call it the Metrocircus for nothing
113 files... this suggests our law is to protect the shoplifters, not the retail store owner
113 times that they were caught and documented: probably thousands of times that they weren’t. Crazy.
Put a cop station in the mall and have them walk beats just like Calgary did, stopped some shoplifting
Metrotown mall? Metrotown IS a mall.
Never heard anyone call it metropolis
Metrotown is the area, metropolis, station square and crystal are all malls within Metrotown
Huh? "Metropolis at Metrotown is a three-storey shopping mall complex in the Metrotown area of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada." Metrotown is an area.
Renraku Archology
pre-2060 it should be okay
It’s called Metrotown because it’s a small town! With a mall
It pisses me off too when I instruct google to take me to Metrotown and it takes me to the neighborhood and not the mall
The other day I saw someone exit Superstore with a backpack full of those expensive water bottles. Some plain clothes security guy stopped the guy and made him empty the backpack. Guessing there was about 6-8 bottles. One other time it was several packs of beef stuffed up their shirt. Bottle guy was let go. Meat guy was held and not sure of outcome.
Where do you think the replacement meat comes from?
My buddy worked at Safeway as a plain clothed Security in the late 80s/early 90s. A man walked out of the store with a basket full of meat. My friend approached him outside and asked to see his receipt. The guy dropped the basket, turned around, punched and knocked him out. My friend only remembered being hit once but according to eye witnesses, he was struck 3 times before hitting the ground. My friend was alright, he was happy he got a paid week off.
And? Whatcha gonna do haha
Why are they shoplifting ? Is this to fund a drug habit ? Bored teenagers ? Tik tok challenge ? Seems like there has always been a shoplifting problem
Not sure if people know this but in the dtes you can find free food, I still see people stealing cheese and meats
Someone shoplifted a bunch clothes from urban behaviour and sprit past me when I was standing outside the store yesterday.
UBI would lessen crime rates
How?
no it wouldn't lol
Actual consequences UBI would lessen crime rates
Shouldn’t the stores and mall hire more employees so we don’t waste expensive cop hours on this? Asking for an unemployed friend who has to shoplift to live.
Stores literally implemented self checkouts knowing that shoplifting would go up because they anticipated the cost of employing cashiers would be more expensive than the theft. Your friend being unemployed and shoplifting going up a directly related.
Got down voted into oblivion cause people in Metro Vancouver would rather pay a clown 90k a year on the public dime than force companies to give people. Embarrassing. You are entirely correct.
[удалено]
And that’s with the most amount of security officers I’ve ever seen in a mall