{"id":645353,"date":"2026-10-30T00:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T00:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/645353\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T00:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T00:58:11","slug":"cctv-captures-threats-violence-in-nz-supermarkets-as-thefts-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/645353\/","title":{"rendered":"CCTV captures threats, violence in NZ supermarkets as thefts rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chocolate, meat, mayonnaise, cosmetics, and pain relief are at the top of the grocery list for thieves.<\/p>\n

Police data released to 1News under the Official Information Act showed supermarket crime had surged by 452% since 2018 \u2013 with nearly 38,000 incidents reported last year alone.<\/p>\n

In the first six months of 2026, the number of victimisations was over 17,000, with the resolution rate sitting at 25%.<\/p>\n

\"Supermarket<\/p>\n

Supermarket crime had surged by 452% since 2018. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Police Assistant Commissioner Tusha Penny said the reporting system has been improved, making it easier for incidents to be logged.<\/p>\n

She also pointed to the national retail investigation support unit that was targeting recidivist repeat shoplifters.<\/p>\n

“One is a drive of necessity where people are stealing to feed themselves and their families. The other is a drive of addiction and the other thing that we’re really seeing is a drive for a demand in theft or order.”<\/p>\n

CCTV captures customer violence in NZ supermarkets as thefts rise \u2013 Watch on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>The rise in supermarket crime was matched by a fall in resolution rates. In 2018, police resolved one in three offences, which dropped last year to one in five.<\/p>\n

“We’re getting a far better appreciation of how much crime there actually is in relation to retail theft,” Penny said.<\/p>\n

“And the good thing is, since Commissioner [Richard] Chambers has come in, we’ve had a very clear focus on the uplift of resolutions.”<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police Assistant Commissioner Tusha Penny. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

<\/a>Woolworths’ general manager for safety, health and wellbeing, Denva Wren, said the spike in thefts had also come with increased violence and aggression.<\/p>\n

She said staff members were confronted daily with abuse and, in some cases, were being threatened with knives, hammers and machetes.<\/p>\n

The supermarket giant was upping protective measures by rolling out body cameras for staff and adding safe rooms and number plate recognition technology to catch the culprits.<\/p>\n

“We have significantly invested in a number of controls to help protect our team, protect our stores, protect our customers and communities,” Wren said. <\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds including a tornado on a Canterbury farm, and a dizzying new world record. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chocolate, meat, mayonnaise, cosmetics, and pain relief are at the top of the grocery list for thieves. Police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[138,67,144,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-645353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-business","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-food-drink","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}