Pine Centre Save On Foods Store Manager Regan Bader presented to the City’s Standing Committee on Public Safety this afternoon (Tuesday), emphasizing the store’s concerns regarding retail theft.
“Over the years, theft has gone from being just simple, very simple things where you might grab a bottle of mouthwash from somebody heading out the door or something like this,” Bader told the Committee.
“Over the years its definitely gotten dramatically worse, there’s not only been a spike and I think the RCMP can attest to that.”
Bader referenced a court case he was subpoenaed for recently in which a prolific offender well known to the RCMP received only 150 days of house arrest.
“He was up on not only the theft-under charges, but also fraudulent purchases utilizing fraudulent purchase orders from a local group,” he said.
“It’s these types of situations that we spend a lot of time and effort in putting together packages for the RCMP because we’re compiling video, we’re getting statements and putting this stuff all together. At the end of the day, that proverbial slap on the wrist is certainly not enough to deter.”
Bader also noted he’s been after an individual that’s been in his store 22 times, claiming the individual has stolen from the store approximately 19 times.
“This is a very normal thing, we have a lot of prolific offenders that come into the store, they do not fit any of the normal things that we look for,” he explained.
“We just happen upon them by chance, it’s one little thing that happens that’s allowing me to backtrack through video surveillance to see what they’ve been doing for an extended period of time.”
“At the end of the day, just going through the system itself, I’ll just call it the inability of the court system to do anything concrete with these individuals is concerning,” he added.
Bader added PG has been deemed a hotspot for retail theft within the Pattison Foods Group.
“We’re all struggling with that, we have full buggies of groceries go out,” he explained.
“Even just on the losses for retail, they peg at between $2,000 and $5,000 a week for a retail operation, which puts Prince George alone for the five stores between $500,000 and over $1 million in thefts that really go undetected.”
Bader told reporters following his presentation that’s a retail number, not for Save-On-Foods or Pattison Food Group.
“That is a retail theft number, it’s just based on doing a little bit of research and coming up with a number because really, at the end of the day, we don’t know,” he said.
“I know that we have things called unknown shrink, I know that I find packages on the shelves all the time. I mentioned Costco, and while they have a great business model to try and curtail theft, they still have empty packages on the shelf.”
“I feel so sorry for what you’re going through and the staff,” responded Councillor Brian Skakun.
“I can’t imagine the stress that they’re under, watching this, feeling helpless, probably feeling like they should maybe get involved, but then their personal safety is at risk.”
Councillor Susan Scott said the two words that came into her mind are shock and entitlement.
“It might not be conscious, but it’s there. It doesn’t matter, I might as well tale it. It’s wrong, but it’s there,” she said.
Prince George RCMP Superintendent Darin Rappel touted the success of the Repeat Violent Offender program, saying the RCMP is looking to implement a similar program for non-violent, repeat offenders.
Mayor Simon Yu said Council would bring the file to the Union of BC Municipalities Conference as well as the North Central Local Government Association.
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