Skegness Magazine

A RECENT spate of thefts from charity shops has led one Skegness store to set up a round robin call service.

Oxfam on Lumley Road started the service last week, which uses a telephone system to alert other charity shops in the town if someone appears to be acting suspiciously, or is known to have shoplifted before.

An existing Shop Watch scheme already runs between stores in the town using radio but the new system is purely for charity shops and so far nine have signed up.

Oxfam store manager Sue Ray explained: “In the past few months we have seen a big increase in the number of people shoplifting and charity shops seem to be vulnerable.

“It is very disheartening, people make donations to us, giving in good faith and to lose items to shoplifters is not fair on us or those who give to us.
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“I decided it was time we did something about it and discovered that a similar system has been used in Kent, which saw a reduction in the number of incidents. Each shop involved has been given a list of the other shops’ numbers.”

Since being launched on Thursday the call service has already been used to help ensure that other charity shops are aware of possible shoplifters with any confirmed incidents being reported to the police.

“I think people have less respect for charity shops than they do for normal stores because they think they can have items for nothing because they were donated. At the end of the day we just want to get the best price to help a good cause.

“There is no particular age group that seems to target us, we have had children through to pensioners taking items and hopefully this will help to combat crime because all the shops are in close communication.”

Skegness Sector Inspector, Steve Hill said: “This is a very positive first step towards getting all the town’s charity shops involved with our Shopwatch Scheme and we welcome this move.

“As it currently stands, Oxfam staff will only be able to share information with the other charity shops, but if we can get them all on board with Shopwatch then it will certainly go a long way to strengthening our resilience against retail crime.”

He added: “We will be discussing ways of getting all our charity shops on board with the head of the town’s Shopwatch Scheme, which will include looking at ways of funding their involvement.”