A pharmacy manager in UK’s Birmingham has come up with a unique way to tackle shoplifting- by putting up a ‘wall of shame’ featuring a gallery of suspected crooks.
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Following a surge in shoplifting crimes at his Saltley’s store, Whasuf Farooq, the manager of Pak Pharmacy set up a ‘wall of shame’ where he publicly shamed over 16 individuals by featuring images of alleged shoplifters.
According to report by The Metro (article beyond paywall), the images on the wall of shame which featured alleged thieves carrying out the crime, were captioned in a humorous way to mock them for their acts.
One man, was depicted as ‘Nivea Man’ after he stole a Nivea cream with staff telling him to “moisturise his crusty hands”. In another picture, a woman was labelled as ‘big dummy’ after allegedly attempting to steal a dummy before blaming it on her child, the report added.
According to BBC (article beyond paywall), the shopkeeper was repeatedly targeted by shoplifters who had stolen thousands of pounds worth of medicines and even the police failed to investigate the stealing, despite having CCTV evidence.
He said, “Shoplifting has been a big problem here but the police don’t do anything to help us. We’ve had 15 or 16 people on the wall in the past year. If they come and pay we take it down – it’s as simple as that, it’s no problem”.
Farooq devised the idea of wall of shame started erecting the images of wanted thieves in his window. He insisted that his idea is so effective that the thieves are returning to pay for what they owe.
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He said, “It’s decreased a lot, everyone thinks twice now. It’s like a deterrent, people walk up to the door and turn around. People don’t want to be featured. Naming and shaming works, people see them and tell us where they live or who they are. I do plan to keep it going”, he further added.
