‘I watched three lads shoplift and no one stopped them

Four weeks ago, I witnessed a crime. No one got hurt - physically - there was no nasty crime scene, as such, and yet what I saw has bothered me for almost a month. It was shortly after 6pm on a Friday night and we were in one of the busiest and most popular places in town - the local parade of shops.

Squeezed into a residential street - where you can imagine neighbours’ patience is regularly tested by rogue parking, litter, kids on the corner or unrelenting food smells- there’s a newsagents, hairdressers, couple of takeaways and a convenience store with a cash machine. And come teatime - particularly of a weekend - the street is heaving with cars, dog walkers, delivery drivers and families like mine nipping into the tightly-packed food store in search of something for tea, a bottle of wine, snacks for the kids - or all of the above. With our haul of Friday night treats secured in a basket we had joined the long queue when three lads walked in, perhaps aged 17 or 18.

Their hoods were up but certainly not over their faces - so not unusual for older boys of their age - and they’re laughing and joking, which catches the attention of some and doesn’t suggest anything untoward is to happen. They walk towards a display - the sort that tempts you into things you don’t really need as you’re about to pay - each one picks up a large box of beer from the shelf, tucks it under their arm, and they leave. Just like that.

They didn’t run - they walked. Strolled in fact - with the cheek to continue their conversation as they left. So confident were they, I’d guess it wasn’t their first foray into breaking the law.

Previous experience also probably told them they’d most likely get away with it. And sure enough, not one adult watching-on challenged them, us included. The ladies behind the till glanced up, stared at each other with a look that said someone will need to make a note, before returning to the sympathetic paying customers in front of them with a shake of their head and a shared eye-roll.

I remain curious as to whether they ever did notify police because their demeanour pointed to it being far too common an occurrence. Like everyone else in the queue, we didn’t step across the boys’ path either. I’m not sure I can claim being paralysed by fear.

Shock maybe more than anything - theft really has become that brazen a crime. That said, it happened so quickly, the trio were probably halfway up the road before we’d processed the sheer audacity of what we’d witnessed. But did anyone even make any remote effort to give chase? Not at all.

And yet everything in our baskets probably costs more today as a result. As parents with children now experimenting with their own independence I regularly remind them ‘not to get involved’ for the sake of their own safety - so perhaps I just took my own advice on this occasion? Is the risk of a public fight really worth it for £45 worth of alcohol? That said, I’m also raising them to understand there are consequences to their actions - but you’d forgive them for thinking otherwise based on the lawlessness they saw that evening. I’ve also since wondered if it had been a mother shoving a loaf of bread under her jacket as she dragged along a toddler, would I have felt any better? Probably yes - not least because I would have used it to justify our own bystander apathy and excuse the blind eye we turned.

And perhaps some attempt to conceal the crime would at least suggest an acknowledgement it was wrong, rather than our gangly gang of thieves who really did just do as they pleased, and dared us to tell them otherwise..