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Perfume thief in Ludwigsburg: shop detective attacked with gas!
In Ludwigsburg, a 22-year-old attacked a store detective with gas after stealing perfume and was arrested.
Perfume thief in Ludwigsburg: shop detective attacked with gas!
In a sensational incident in Ludwigsburg, a 22-year-old was accused of stealing perfume worth 600 euros on Monday. The crime happened around 4:30 p.m. in a Wilhelmgalerie drugstore, where the woman simply put her loot in a bag and left the store without paying. But the store detective, a 44-year-old, wasn't having it and caught the thief. In an unexpected turn of events, the perpetrator used stimulus gas to evade arrest, but was able to be held until the police arrived, as LKZ reports.
After the arrest, the suspect was brought before the magistrate in Ludwigsburg on Tuesday. The judge issued an arrest warrant on strong suspicion of theft and committed the woman to a correctional facility. As the Presseportal adds, this is a clear case of predatory theft that is being prosecuted by the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office. Once again it is clear that crime in retail stores is on the rise.
An alarming trend
The numbers speak for themselves: goods worth around 13 million euros are lost in retail every day. Popular stolen goods include high-quality and small-sized products as well as perfume. Almost three quarters of the thefts come from customers and are responsible for damages amounting to around three billion euros. The numbers have increased in recent years, partly due to the increasing number of self-service checkouts, as WDR notes.
Organized gangs and occasional crime are contributing to the increase. In retail, retailers invest over three billion euros in security measures every year. Despite these efforts, a large proportion of thefts go undetected: 98 percent have no consequences and dealers rarely file reports because they are frustrated by the low conviction rates.
The incidents surrounding thefts in retail not only target individual perpetrators, but also highlight a growing social problem that is fueled by rising prices and the associated wave of crime. In this context, the German Trade Association is calling for measures to improve the situation and reduce crime in retail.
It remains to be seen whether attacks like the current one in Ludwigsburg will lead to a rethink in society and how politicians will react to the alarming developments.