Three brazen thieves targeted a Greggs branch in London as shocked staff and customers helplessly watched on.
The trio filled their bags with sandwiches, baked goods and bottles of drink at the bakery chain’s South Ruislip branch on Monday, February 10, at around 2pm.
In the footage captured by an onlooker in store, one of the shoplifters can be seen taking a bag full of Coca-Cola bottles.
After the woman, wearing a long grey coat and hat, fills her bag she heads towards the exit as two others continue to empty the bakery’s fridge.
A second woman in a pink coat continues to take items from the fridge as one worker looks on from behind the till.
Another worker can also be seen on the phone while the trio target the fridge in front of the counter.
The third person, a man in a black coat and bucket hat, can be seen putting several bottles into his bag during the incident.
The footage has been posted on TikTok where is has been viewed more than 980,000 times. has approached Greggs and the Metropolitan Police for comment.
Video footage of blank-faced shoplifters shamelessly raiding shelves in full view of staff, CCTV and customers filming on their phones has spread like wildfire on social media in recent months.
Retail staff are generally discouraged from engaging with shoplifters to avoid getting hurt, according to British Retail Consortium boss Helen Dickinson.
When they do intervene, guards are often pelted with abuse – as happened in a Tesco 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.
The BRC said last week that it had been made aware of 20.4million shoplifting incidents in the last year.
That was up 3.7million on the year before, costing shops a total of £2.2billion despite retailers investing £1.8billion in counter-measures.
Shoplifters are becoming more brazen too – committing thefts in plain sight of staff knowing they are unlikely to intervene for fear of getting hurt, or worse.
Ms Dickinson told the BBC shoplifters pillaged as they liked because ‘they don’t see that there’s necessarily any consequences’.
She added: ‘It’s outrageous and out of control in many parts of the country.’
Only a fraction of these are likely being reported to police – as experts believe retailers have given up on trying to get justice.
Despite the BRC reporting 20.4million customer theft incidents in a 12 month period, official figures suggest just 490,000 shoplifting offences were recorded last year.
Labour has pledged to make attacking retail staff a specific offence in England and Wales, bringing the countries into line with Scotland, following a campaign by the Mail for the government to take the issue more seriously.
Current laws around shoplifting are too lax, shop bosses say – as anything under £200 is considered a low-level offence that critics say are not pursued.
Lord Stuart Rose, the former Asda and Marks & Spencer boss, said the current laws effectively ‘decriminalised’ theft.
But Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer insisted the country could not tolerate ‘a situation where shoplifters can walk in, shoplift and walk back out again and nobody can do anything about it’ last year.
The frequency of incidents mean that many of the three million people working in the retail industry are terrified to come to work, according to The Retail Trust.
‘People are contacting our helpline in their thousands to report horrifying incidents of abuse and violence and many say that they are now at breaking point,’ Chris Brook-Carter, the organisation’s chief executive, said.
In London specifically, shoplifting incidents have risen 50 per cent year-on-year – more than twice the national average increase.
Mayor Sadiq Khan has blamed the capital’s greater concentration of shops and the cost-of-living crisis.
He said yesterday of the reasons behind the rise: ‘Because we have a lot of shops here, and because the cost-of-living crisis is more acute in the capital city.
‘Personal theft and personal robbery is a big concern for me in London, as well.’