{"id":375984,"date":"2026-04-05T08:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T08:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/375984\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T08:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T08:21:08","slug":"waitrose-employee-sacked-after-stopping-shoplifter-from-taking-easter-eggs-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/375984\/","title":{"rendered":"Waitrose employee sacked after stopping shoplifter from taking Easter eggs | Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Waitrose<\/a> employee of 17 years has described his devastation after being sacked for stopping a shoplifter who had ransacked a display of Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.<\/p>\n

Walker Smith, a shop assistant at a branch of Waitrose in Clapham Junction, south London, was going about his normal duties when a customer stopped him. \u201cThey told me someone had filled up a Waitrose bag with the eggs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old said the shoplifter was a repeat offender. After spotting the thief, he \u201cgrabbed the bag\u201d from the shoplifter, who snatched it back and, he said, there was a struggle for a few seconds before it snapped. The Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs, which retail<\/a> for \u00a313 each, fell to the floor and the shoplifter made a dash for the exit. Smith said one of the bunnies broke into pieces. He picked a piece of the broken bunny and \u201cthrew it out of frustration\u201d towards some shopping trolleys, not aiming it at the shoplifter, he said.<\/p>\n

He was told off by his manager and apologised but the matter was escalated. Smith said he was previously told not to approach shoplifters but the toll of seeing them get away with theft repeatedly spurred him into action. \u201cI\u2019ve been there 17 years. I\u2019ve seen it happen every hour of every day for the last five years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s everybody from drug addicts to teenagers nicking bits and bobs or walking out with bottles of wine in their arms. We\u2019re not allowed to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said security had been scaled back in the shop, with no guards working on Mondays and Tuesday because \u201cshoplifting incidents aren\u2019t reported enough\u201d. This left non-security staff, including Smith, on the frontline of the problem.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Walker said he regretted how he acted. \u201cWhen I got home I was punching myself and thinking \u2018Why did I do that\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After a few days, Walker was hauled into a meeting with two store managers. \u201cI had a feeling about what was going to happen,\u201d he said. He made a final plea, telling his bosses \u201cWaitrose is like my family\u201d but he was still dismissed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to stay strong and I didn\u2019t say a word but inside I was crying. They led me out the back door by the bins. I just felt demoralised,\u201d he said. Walker is diagnosed with anxiety, which he said his managers were aware of.<\/p>\n

He had recently moved into his own studio flat after living with flatmates for 25 years, before being sacked. He worries about how he will keep a roof over his head. \u201cI\u2019m not too sure what\u2019s going to happen with this place now. I might be homeless. My confidence is on the floor right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWaitrose is like my family. My friends are there. I was there for 17 years, I must have been doing something right. I\u2019m not a bad or violent or aggressive person. I just got frustrated seeing this day in and day out and not seeing Waitrose do much about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retail businesses, particularly supermarkets, have seen an increase in shoplifting. In England and Wales, there were 519,381 shoplifting offences in the year to September 2025, up 5% from 492,660 the previous year, according to data from the Office for National Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These numbers are narrowly below the record levels seen in the 12 months to March 2025, when a total of 530,643 offences were recorded.<\/p>\n

In February, retail trade union Usdaw said<\/a> workers face \u201cunacceptable\u201d levels of violence and abuse, with \u201cevidence showing that two-thirds of attacks on retail staff are being triggered by theft or armed robbery\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, Stuart Machin, called on the government and London\u2019s mayor to crack down on retail crime, saying it has become \u201cmore brazen, more organised and more aggressive\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Waitrose spokesperson said: \u201cWe take the safety and security of our customers and our partners incredibly seriously and to do this we have policies in place which our partners are aware of and required to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reference to the point on guarding \u2013 we make absolutely sure that our shops have appropriate levels of guarding and this is constantly adjusted according to the level of risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Waitrose employee of 17 years has described his devastation after being sacked for stopping a shoplifter who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-375984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}