Co-op puts new high-tech GPS trackers on steaks in bid to track down meat thieves – have YOU spotted them at your local?
MEAT YOUR MAKER Co-op puts new high-tech GPS trackers on steaks in bid to track down meat thieves – have YOU spotted them at your local?
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
CO-OP has installed new GPS trackers on steaks in an attempt to find thieves stealing meat from the shops.
The security devices have been put on steak in rural stores as meat thefts soar.
3
A meat packet with GPS at a rural Co-Op store
Credit: X/GeorgeArrowsmith
Packets of beef at some of its branches are now being tagged using global positioning systems (GPS) which use satellites to keep an eye on an item.
Big supermarkets have even set up a working group to find out where all the pinched cuts are going.
GPS trackers could allow them to see exactly where the meat travels after it is taken from the stores.
Some have claimed it is sold on to restaurants and smaller shops who even give thieves a shopping list.
One Co-Op store manager in London said items taken from his store were being offered for sale to customers in the pub next door.
He added: 'It's ridiculous. They are selling cheap steaks and roast dinners because he's got them all for free."
And Inspector Oliver Vale, of Nottinghamshire police, told the podcast Retail Crime Uncovered: "We're quite confident to say that convenience stores or smaller independents are actually giving [the thieves] a shopping list."
Shopper George Arrowsmith is the latest shopper to notice the tracking devices in his local branch.
He said on X: 'Funny how supermarkets in rural Buckinghamshire put security tags on the beef now. That wasn't necessary when I was a kid.
'I wonder what changed…'
Shoplifting in numbers - how thieves are crippling Britain
Startling crime figures lay bare the anarchic crime wave blighting the nation's high streets
Police recorded 339,206 shoplifting incidents in the 12 months to March, yet the British Retail Consortium estimates the total number of retail thefts to be close to eight million.
Just 48,218 shoplifting cases recorded by the police, a derisory 14 per cent, resulted in a charge
.And 183,450 investigations — 54 per cent — were closed without a suspect being identified.
The BRC say retail theft rose by 26 per cent in England and Wales last year
Last year, 516,971 shoplifting offences were logged by police forces -up 20 per cent from 429,873 in 2023.
The figure is the highest since current police records began 22 years ago in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Many offences also go unrecorded, meaning the issue could be far, far worse.
Some stores have adapted, putting security tags on individual items, removing the most-stolen items and putting them behind counters and even putting dummy products on display.
A spokesperson for the Co-Op said: 'Security tags on higher value products are used as part of a wide range of preventative measure to deter shop theft.
'Shop theft can all too often be a trigger for anti-social behaviour and abuse, Co-op's own crime levels index below that of the sector, and Co-op is committed to investing to create safer, stronger and more resilient communities.'
3
Some have claimed it is sold on to restaurants and smaller shops who even give thieves a shopping list
Credit: X/GeorgeArrowsmith
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
20 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Vigilante brothers abducted boys, 11 and 12, to ‘give them a fright' after parents' home vandalised
The pair told the 'terrified' youngsters they were 'going to batter them' TERRIFYING ORDEAL Vigilante brothers abducted boys, 11 and 12, to 'give them a fright' after parents' home vandalised A PAIR of vigilante brothers abducted two schoolboys in retribution for their parents' livingroom window being smashed by vandals. John, 53, and Richard Saunders, 50, grabbed the boys, aged 12 and 13, inside a Co-Op shop, and took them for a "terrifying" drive in their car. Advertisement 3 Richard Saunders and his brother John grabbed the boys after their parents' window was smashed 3 John Saunders said he and his brother acted after weeks of youngsters "causing havoc" 3 Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard the Saunders brothers took the law into their own hands Credit: Alamy Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard the Saunders brothers took the two boys' mobile phones off them to prevent them from calling for help whilst detaining them inside their car. After being bundled into the back of the vehicle and driven off the Saunders brothers told the "terrified" youngsters they were 'going to batter them'. The court was told the pair had reacted after weeks of young people "causing havoc" in the area where their parents lived. John, of Kenilworth Terrace and Richard, of Melrose Gardens, both Lochore, admitted abducting and assaulting the two boys on September 30. Advertisement They seized and pulled them by the body, removed them from a shop, struck one of them on the head and abducted both of them by forcing them into a vehicle and driving them away. The brothers drove around during the frightening ordeal, telling the children they were "giving them a fright", before dropping them off. At 9.45pm the mum of one of the boys heard a car pull up outside. The court heard John Saunders was pulling her boy by the jumper and told the mum what had happened. Advertisement The prosecutor told the court Saunders said that his mum's window had been smashed and that it had "been going on for months". Asked if he had anything to say to the court, John Saunders, who was representing himself, said, 'The window wasn't cracked, it was shattered and smashed. Rachael Watts, who breaks her thirty-year silence to share her story for the first time on camera revealing how she survived a brutal abduction and assault 'I got a call from my parents to say their window had been smashed and as I drove to their house, I saw them (the boys) walking from there towards the Co-op. 'When I went into the house my mum was so upset and I didn't know what to do. Advertisement 'I went to look for them and they were in the shop like nothing had happened.' Saunders said the boys had told them that someone from Cardenden had also been there at the time and so they had gone looking for him at bus stops. Saunders told the court, 'I realised what I was doing was wrong' and he then took the boys home. Solicitor David McLaughlin, representing Richard Saunders, said his client was a hard-working family man with two grown-up children and had never been involved in a court case before. Advertisement He went on, 'The background is that youngsters within the area were effectively causing havoc and had been picking on the brothers' mother and father for a number of weeks. 'On this occasion the window was shattered and it was the straw that broke the camel's back. 'He lost his temper and it was a spur of the moment thing. He and his brother made poor decisions. 'He acknowledges he stepped out of line and appears to show genuine remorse. As he put it, 'two wrongs don't make a right'.' Advertisement Sheriff Steven Borthwick said he acknowledged that the brothers' actions were out of character. He told them, 'Both of you were very concerned for the well-being of your parents, were angry and wanted to do something about it. 'However, it is completely unacceptable to do what you did. That's the sort of offence that leads to the serious consideration of the imposition of a custodial sentence. 'It's simply not acceptable for civilians to take the law into their hands, especially when children are involved.' Advertisement He sentenced both brothers to a community payback order with 150 hours of unpaid work.
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Gloating email from M&S hackers to CEO confirms motives behind cyber attack
A email has come to light sent to the boss of Marks & Spencer from a now notorious gang of online hackers called DragonForce, who are also believed to be behind an attack on the Co-op A gloating email from a gang of cyber hackers to Marks & Spencer has emerged. The message - to M&S boss Stuart Machin - confirms for the first time that retailer had been targeted by the ransomware group. In it, they wrote: 'We have marched the ways from China all the way to the UK and have mercilessly raped your company and encrypted all the servers." It then says "The dragon wants to speak" before giving a link to the darknet - - a hidden part of the internet. The email, seen by the BBC, was sent on April 23 from the hacker group called DragonForce. The gang apparently used the account of an employee from the Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services, which has provided IT services to M&S for over a decade. M&S has been left reeling by the cyber attack, which has seen its online clothing, homewares and beauty sales for more than six weeks. The retailer has already estimated it could wipe £300million off its annual profits. Online has become an increasingly important to M&S - as for other retailers - and had more than 10 million 'active' customers and over £1.3billion a year of sales. Join Money Saving Club's specialist topics According to the BBC, the email is in broken English and includes a racist term. It was sent to Mr Machin and seven other executives. As well as bragging about infecting M&S's IT systems with ransomware, they also claim to have stolen the private data of millions of customers. A link in the email connects to a portal on the so-called darknet for DragonForce, the ransomware used in the attack. The hackers wrote: 'let's get the party started. Message us, we will make this fast and easy for us.' The message also appears to suggest the crooks may have details about M&S's cyber insurance policy, saying 'we know we can both help each other handsomely : ))'. M&S has said insurance should reduce the overall £300million hit. M&S has refused to say if the company has paid a ransom to the hackers. M&S is among a wave of companies struck by ransomware - a form of malicious software designed to burrow into companies' systems, steal commercially sensitive information, which is then locked, with crooks demanding their victims pay money before handing them the key. The Co-op and Harrods have also been hit recently. The gang has previously claimed the Co-op narrowly avoided being locked out of its own computer systems. On May 21, M&S said it hoped to resume online sales 'within weeks'. It also warned its operations could be out of action until as late as July, though it expected to begin resuming orders sooner than that. The gang known as DragonForce has been implicated in the first two of those, but speculation is rife about who -or what -it is. While it seems to have first emerged up to two years, experts say they use operate in a similar way to others that specialise in creating ransomware Another gang known as Scattered Spider -with members said to be aged as young as 16 -is said to have used DragonForce's ransomware in the M&S attack. DragonForce's rumoured link to Russia has been fuelled by the fact that a number of other ransomware attacks have been launched from the country in the past. Other reports have linked DragonForce to a pro-Palestinian group located in Malaysia. There has also been speculation about the group's motives, and that they could be political in some way.
ITV News
2 days ago
- ITV News
'Less glamorous than Hot Fuzz': bodycam footage shows Essex officers chasing prolific thief
Bodycam footage shows police chasing Scott Butcher Bodycam footage has been released showing police scaling garden fences to chase down a prolific thief. Scott Butcher fled the rear of a house in Colchester, Essex, where he was staying without the owner's permission, on 28 March after police surrounded the property. The 38-year-old had been identified as the culprit in 11 separate thefts, ten at Co-op stores and one at the Asda store in Shrub End Road. Butcher, of no fixed address, stole cleaning products, meat and sweets, with the highest-value theft worth £230. He was in breach of a Criminal Behaviour Order put in place in September 2023, stopping him from entering any Co-op store in Essex. Officers from the Colchester Local Policing Team managed to catch him and he was arrested before being charged with 11 counts of theft and 10 breaches of his CBO. He was sentenced to eight months in prison at Ipswich Crown Court. Sgt Dean Young said: "It's a little less glamorous and executed with a little less flair than you see in films like Hot Fuzz, but we won't let gates or garden fences get in the way of catching criminals. "I know we can't be everywhere at all times, but I'd like to urge our businesses and residents to feel confident in making reports to us about theft and associated anti-social behaviour."
