This is the stunning moment a brazen shoplifter was caught red-handed during a police ambush, before being told: ‘You’re nicked’.
Thieving Derick Bell strolled into the Co-Op in Lower Marsh, Lambeth, south London, intent on stealing as much as he could.
Entering the store at 8.30am wearing a grey hoody and black coat, the greedy 36-year-old started ransacking the store’s meat chiller.
But little did the thug know that as he was piling up cuts of steak, police hiding in the back room were preparing to pounce.
Dramatic footage, caught on body-worn camera, captured the moment a Met Police officer launched out of the room and charged the unsuspecting thief.
Sprinting down the aisle, brave Inspector Darren Watson grabs Bell while he was still attempting to pinch food from fridge.
‘You’re nicked,’ Insp Watson shouts, as he dumps the wide-eyed crook to the floor, before yelling ‘give me your hands’ as he arrests Bell.
The police ambush, which took place on Monday, has now led to Bell being jailed for eight weeks.
Inspector Watson, from Lambeth’s neighbourhood policing team, said: ‘This is an excellent example of how the Met is taking a targeted approach to tackle the type of offending that matters most to Londoners.
‘We know shoplifting has a significant impact on businesses and shop staff. It often also fuels other crime and anti-social behaviour.
‘In Lambeth alone, our enforcement activity means 11 of the 14 most prolific shoplifters in the area are currently in prison and we will continue to take action against those who cause misery in our communities.’
Police carried out the targeted sting following several reports of theft from the shop.
After reviewing recent crime reports, officers arrived early and waited in the back office where they monitored CCTV cameras.
Bell, carrying an orange Sainsbury’s bag, was spotted at 8.30am as he started to steal meats from the fridge, while another stunned customer watched on in horror.
It was the second time Bell had attempted to steal from the store.
He was caught on CCTV just days before, on January 19, wearing the same clothes as he ransacked the meat chiller.
Bell, of no fixed address, was immediately detained and arrested.
On Tuesday, he appeared at Croydon Magistrates’ Court where he pleaded guilty to two counts of shoplifting and was jailed.
His successful conviction comes as police continue to try and clampdown on brazen thieves who have been terrorising shops across the capital, stealing with impunity.
Crooks are often filmed by staff or shoppers as they nonchalantly pile meat or pricey bottles of wine into rucksacks, before breezing past security guards.
One clip, filmed at London’s M&S branch in Chancery Lane, captured one blank-faced thief as he slowly snatched jams and chutneys off the shelf while a guard pleads with him to stop.
In other cases the thieves appear to be relishing their moment of notoriety, with video from a Tesco in West Drayton showing three shoplifters laughing as they leave the store laden with bottles of spirits – as security guards watch on helplessly.
When they do intervene, guards are often pelted with abuse – as happened in another Tesco a short drive away in West Drayton where a man pelted staff with chocolate bars and screamed ‘get your f***ing hands off me’ in front of terrified children.
In an even more shocking case, a serial thief drove 220 yards with a farm shop employee on his bonnet after he bravely tried to stop him fleeing Mainsgill Farm in North Yorkshire by standing in front of his car.
So flagrant are the crooks, many don’t even bother to conceal their identity – with some now dubbed ‘kamikaze thieves’.
These disturbing videos, all filmed in recent months, provide a small insight into a crime that has reached crisis levels across the UK – with new data showing the number of shoplifting offences has risen by 23 per cent to more than 490,000 a year.
There were a total of 492,914 offences recorded by police in the year to September, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed yesterday – the highest figure since current police recording practices began for the year ending March 2003.
It follows warnings that shoplifting is ‘spiraling out of control’ after a survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) suggested there were more than 2,000 incidents a day, with staff facing assault, being threatened with weapons, and abuse.
There were more than 55,000 incidents of theft per day, equating to more than 20 million in total.
The alarming figures show the issue is getting worse, with cases of attacks and shoplifting beating last year’s record numbers to be a fresh high since the surveys began in 2001.
This is despite businesses paying a record £1.8billion on prevention tactics such as CCTV, more security guards and body worn cameras.
Some 61 per cent of retailers say the police response to calls for help has been ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.
Retailers are reporting unprecedented levels of violence towards their staff, with the number of incidents involving a weapon more than doubling to 70 per day.