Shoplifting In Dortmund | Theft From Shops And Office Premises

Dortmund is both a working-class city and a metropolis in one: multicultural and multifaceted, congress centre as well as place of refuge – here live the poor and the wealthy, the elderly and the young, singles and families. Particularly in such a metropolitan area, where prosperity and poverty coexist almost door to door, the risk of becoming a victim of robbery or theft is especially high. The reasons vary from sheer greed or the notion that money can supposedly be earned more quickly through theft than through honest work, to actual and somewhat comprehensible survival motives, and even acquisitive crime committed by those dependent on drugs or alcohol, as the following case from Kurtz Investigations Dortmund shows:

Short-Term Opportunity Leads To Criminal Damage And Theft In A Retail Shop

A small owner-managed retail shop in Dortmund offering specialities from around the world and considered a genuine insider tip. Only the owner himself and one employee work there, usually alternating daily, as there is rarely sufficient customer traffic to require two persons to be present. On the day of the offence, the employee Elsbeth K. (all names changed) was working alone in the shop and it became unusually busy. While serving a married couple, she kept two further female customers within sight, but lost sight of a young man who had gone to the rear section of the shop. The sales area had a rear door leading into a corridor from which the storeroom and office branched off. After Elsbeth K. had served the married couple, she turned to the next customer. In the meantime, the young man returned and casually asked the sales assistant whether she also had item XY in stock. Elsbeth replied in the negative and the man left the shop.

The employee continued serving her customers and, once everyone had left the premises, went towards the office. There she discovered that the office door had been forced open and her small rucksack with all its contents had disappeared. Even worse, however, a cash box containing the day’s takings, which were to be taken to the bank the following morning, was also missing. The young man had evidently taken his time to look around the building and the office thoroughly before committing the theft.

Police Inactive In Minor Offences

The police who were called recorded the case and then left the scene. For years, staffing levels at regulatory authorities have been reduced, and since burglary and theft are difficult and time-consuming to solve, police handling of such offences tends to be of secondary priority. The officers neither secured evidence nor recorded a description of the young man.

As a result, Elsbeth K. and the shop owner contacted Kurtz Detective Agency Dortmund and described the case. One of our detectives immediately set off and secured the traces of the break-in as well as the existing fingerprints using soot powder, a powder brush, lifting film and other forensic tools. After Elsbeth K. and the shop owner had their fingerprints taken by our Dortmund detective in order to distinguish them from those of the perpetrator, our investigator returned to the operations centre. He telephoned a former colleague at the local criminal police to compare the evaluated fingerprints with the offender database. As the thief was well known and had already been sentenced to imprisonment for commercial theft, the search produced a match. The colleague from the criminal investigation department exerted pressure on the uniformed police, who promptly attended the offender’s residential address and were thus able to secure the stolen rucksack and the majority of the stolen cash.

Anecdote Without Investigative Relevance

There are also a few, sometimes curious, exceptions to the motives for shoplifting that do not fall within the scope of malicious intent to enrich oneself, as the following case shows, in which our detectives from Dortmund were not involved but which was related to them by a later client:

Theft As Occupational Therapy?

A small branch of a large grocery retail chain in Dortmund city centre with a branch manager, Mr P. (who passed this anecdote on to our Dortmund private detectives), and three sales assistants – Anna, Berta, Claudia. It was a pleasant workplace, the team got on well with one another and the customers were almost without exception friendly. There were very few shoplifters, rarely more than one per year was caught and stock discrepancies remained very limited. However, there was one “Granny”, as she was called among the staff; a customer about 75 years old who indulged in a peculiar hobby: she stole – and quite openly. She had been given the nickname by the team because she was actually a very charming, cheerful elderly lady.

She never stole much, only ever a bar of chocolate or a bag of sweets. The first time, Claudia noticed that although the elderly lady had properly placed several items in her shopping trolley, the corner of a chocolate bar was clearly visible protruding from her handbag, which was also in the trolley. Claudia asked “Granny” whether she also wished to purchase that bar and whether it had already been paid for. Granny acted surprised, said she could not explain how the chocolate had got into her handbag, winked conspiratorially and grinned like a mischievous schoolboy. Claudia was speechless. Once she had regained her composure, she called Mr P. over. Granny told the branch manager the same story, whereupon he admonished her that such behaviour was not permissible, as it constituted shoplifting and he ought really to call the police. Granny appeared shocked, but smiled slyly and assured him she would pay for the chocolate immediately and would never do such a thing again. Nevertheless, Mr P. issued her with a ban from the premises.

A “Thievish Pleasure”

One month later, Granny was back – same procedure. She had evidently developed an uncontrollable enjoyment of this “leisure activity”. When she appeared twice more in the following months despite the ban, the team decided to turn a blind eye and simply let her leave with the chocolate or sweets in order not to cause a fuss. However, they had reckoned without Granny. Hardly had she passed the checkout when she turned around and loudly announced that she had “accidentally” taken a bag of sweets. Now she would surely have to go to the police. So Mr P. came and admonished her for the second time, referring to the ban, while she winked at him grinning the entire time.

Until the branch closed several years later, Granny came regularly once a month and allowed herself to be “caught”, then listening almost gleefully to the branch manager’s admonitions.

Note