Waitrose Employee Dismissed After Stopping Shoplifter
Walker Smith, 54, who had been employed by Waitrose for 17 years, expressed his devastation after being dismissed for intervening when a shoplifter attempted to steal Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.
Smith, a shop assistant at the Waitrose branch in Clapham Junction, south London, was performing his usual duties when a customer alerted him.
“They told me someone had filled up a Waitrose bag with the eggs,”he said.
The 54-year-old identified the shoplifter as a repeat offender. Upon noticing the individual, Smith said he
“grabbed the bag”from the thief. The shoplifter then snatched it back, leading to a brief struggle before the bag broke. The Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs, priced at £13 each, fell to the floor as the shoplifter fled. Smith noted that one of the chocolate bunnies broke into pieces. He picked up a fragment and
“threw it out of frustration”toward some shopping trolleys, clarifying he was not aiming at the shoplifter.
Following the incident, Smith was reprimanded by his manager and apologized, but the situation escalated. He stated that he had previously been instructed not to confront shoplifters, but the ongoing issue of theft compelled him to act.
“I’ve been there 17 years. I’ve seen it happen every hour of every day for the last five years,”he said.
“It’s everybody from drug addicts to teenagers nicking bits and bobs or walking out with bottles of wine in their arms. We’re not allowed to do anything.”
Smith also mentioned that security had been reduced in the store, with no guards present on Mondays and Tuesdays due to underreporting of shoplifting incidents. This left non-security staff, including himself, to handle such issues.
Despite his actions, Smith expressed regret.
“When I got home I was punching myself and thinking ‘Why did I do that’,”he said.
Dismissal and Personal Impact
Several days later, Smith was called into a meeting with two store managers.
“I had a feeling about what was going to happen,”he said. He made a final appeal, stating
“Waitrose is like my family,”but was still dismissed.
“I tried to stay strong and I didn’t say a word but inside I was crying. They led me out the back door by the bins. I just felt demoralised,”he added. Smith has been diagnosed with anxiety, a condition his managers were aware of.
Before his dismissal, Smith had recently moved into his own studio flat after living with flatmates for 25 years. He now worries about his housing situation.
“I’m not too sure what’s going to happen with this place now. I might be homeless. My confidence is on the floor right now,”he said.
“Waitrose is like my family. My friends are there. I was there for 17 years, I must have been doing something right. I’m 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.”
Retail Crime Trends and Industry Response
Retail businesses, especially supermarkets, have experienced an increase in shoplifting. In England and Wales, there were 519,381 shoplifting offences in the year to September 2025, representing a 5% increase from 492,660 the previous year, according to official data.
These figures are slightly below the record levels recorded in the 12 months to March 2025, which totaled 530,643 offences.
In February, the retail trade union Usdaw highlighted that workers face
“unacceptable”levels of violence and abuse, noting that
“evidence showing that two-thirds of attacks on retail staff are being triggered by theft or armed robbery”.
On Friday, Marks & Spencer’s chief executive, Stuart Machin, urged the government and London’s mayor to address retail crime, describing it as
“more brazen, more organised and more aggressive”.
Waitrose Response
A Waitrose spokesperson stated:
“We 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.
In reference to the point on guarding – we make absolutely sure that our shops have appropriate levels of guarding and this is constantly adjusted according to the level of risk.”
The spokesperson emphasized that these policies must be strictly adhered to due to the potential serious danger to life when confronting shoplifters.
“As a responsible employer, we never want to be in a position where we are notifying families of a tragedy because someone tried to stop a theft. Nothing we sell is worth risking lives for.”
They added that individual cases cannot be discussed but confirmed that the correct procedures, including a standard appeals process, were being followed.
