Fake thieves deployed to improve anti-theft measures 04/02/2008 00:00

Shopping centre De Egelantier in Apeldoorn will be deploying fake shoplifters in the coming month to make shop owners and personnel more alert to shoplifting.

4 February 2008

APELDOORN – Shopping centre De Egelantier in Apeldoorn will be deploying fake shoplifters in the coming month to make shop owners and personnel more alert to shoplifting.

The director of the shopping centre's management has announced this. He said this is the first time that actors posing as thieves will be deployed on such a large scale in the Netherlands.

The shopping centre houses about 25 shops. Business owners who do not wish to be visited by the "thieves" have until Wednesday to notify the shop owners' association.

The campaign follows on a municipally sponsored training course for crime prevention that shop owners in Apeldoorn were given the opportunity to follow in 2007. "We are now going to investigate how successful this training was," says Fred Stuij, director of the crime prevention bureau.

"Our actors not only try to steal something from the shop. As soon as they are successful, they immediately return to the shop and explain to the shop manager what has happened. They also give specific tips on preventing shoplifting in future."

The fake thief campaign is being sponsored by the shop owners' association.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2008]

Subject: Dutch news