Reuben Sharples: West Auckland butcher says most shoplifting cases are too small to report on

A West Auckland butcher says a lot of shoplifting is too small to bother reporting. 

A Retail NZ survey has found 40 percent of retail crime goes unreported. 

Butcher Reuben Sharples says for small amounts it's not worth the hassle to get CCTV footage together to send police. 

He says they only report on bigger robberies, which get a bigger police response. 

"We've had break-ins, we've had thousands...around Christmas time, I had 4,000 turkeys stolen."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now we've got some new stats that just show show
just how badly underreported retail crime is. There's a new
report by Retail New Zealand. They surveyed about fifteen hundred
shop owners and ninety nine percent of those who were
surveyed had experienced some form of crime, which totaled about
one hundred and forty thousand incidents in twenty twenty four alone,
and about forty percent of these crimes weren't even reported

(00:21):
to the police. Now, Ruben Sharples is the owner of
the Ossie Butcher and New Lyn and is with us. Now, hey, Ruben,
here you go very well.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Have you done the same thing if you had some
crime happen and not gone to the cops with it.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, it's for a lot of the sort of the
general sort of shoplifting.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
It's like sometimes you see them, we can't catch them.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
And I have reported it in the past, but if
it's a small amount, like a smaller dollar figure, it's
like at least that's under one hundred dollars or something.
By the time I sort of spend my time trying
to download all the images and send them through it's
and the police to just they do attend, Like, we've

(01:04):
got a very good local group in Newlyn, But it
seems that the whole the greater the greater justice system
doesn't really they do their job and then it seems
that they get a slap on the hand and.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Nothing really happens. But probably nine times out of ten
it doesn't get reported.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Okay. And is it the case that every time you
report something you have to provide the evidence for it,
like you have to go and find the CCTV right. Well, yeah,
so it's a huge amount. It's like a huge effort
on your part.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah, and it's yeah, like it is quite tiresome. I
mean the websites that you have you can upload if
I've got time, I usually will upload it. On that
kind of side of things. I can't remember the website
at the moment, and it's pretty easy to do. So
that's been made easier in the later of years.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Ruben, what's the value, like, what would it what would
it take? How much would someone have to nick for
you to feel like it was worth going to the police.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
I mean, we've had some pretty big ones in the
past which I have gone and they have been caught
and justice has been served. I know that like somebody
that a few years ago stole a lot of eggs
lamb of us with their break ins. Whe have stole
thousands Christmas time, we had four thousand turkeys.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Stole them. How that got reported? We had a container
out the front.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
And they were they spent probably fifteen minutes, eventually got
him and then yeah, and stole half in our Christmas turkeys,
which was which was kind.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Of that got reported. And but I mean they're not silly.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
They don't rock up with a sign saying their names
Reuben Chaples. They're all bella, clubbed and gloved and every
so there's no fingerprints and they in the cops came down,
forensics came down very quickly when I reported that, but nothing.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Was available.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Ruben, How how are you finding crime at the moment?
Has it come back slightly? Is it as bad as
it ever was?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Where I think it's opportunists. I think if people see that,
so we'll make sure we've got a couple of shop
assistants in the shop.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
If you see someone that sort of you know, in
summer and they come in with a great big puff
of jackets and a bag at the front with it
unzipped and sort of go out in the shop and
it will to send out, so there's quite a few
staff out, so they don't sort of get the opportunity.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
I think that's a big.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
I think it's expensive, Like we all know how expensive
groceries they've got over the last few years.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
And I think that's I think that's a big issue.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
We had one that we had quite a comical one
the other day or other week. They came in, had
a wig on and a hat on, and someone just
turned their corner and they managed to just bolt and lit.
My guys gave chase, but this person was faster than
the same bolt through the wig off, through the hat off,
and yeah, but that was that was probably only thirty dollars.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
They what that?

Speaker 3 (04:13):
What is it?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
What?

Speaker 1 (04:13):
What are people wigging and hatting up for? What are
they know?

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, they you need to packet the lamb chops and
some mints.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
So so when you sort of see it like that,
that's I don't think that's to on sell to be
like comes in and taking it's hungry. If someone comes
in and they're taking I filets and things like that
with they're selling it to get money to buy other
you know where it's food, or whether it's to buy
drugs or not saying that, but it's you can sort

(04:44):
of you can sort of pick the difference. The ones
that just take small amounts it's because they obviously don't
have any money, or you.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Know, yeah, that's great. Hey, Rubin, I really appreciate your time, man,
Thanks very much. It's Ruben Sharples, the owner of the
Assie Butcher and Newland. I mean, I'll tell you what
if it's if if forty percent of crime is all
that's being reported, it just tells you how much worse
it is than you think it is. For more from
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(05:11):
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