A long rant but asking advice

[GanGreenGroin]

A little rant and some advice needed, my wife and I own a little witchy/crystal/goth shop in the UK which we only opened late last year.



Yesterday we had 2 children (about 6 and 9yrs old) come in and steal about £40 of items while we were dealing with other customers.

My wife asked me to check the CCTV as she thought something was odd about the kids' vibe, and true enough they had stolen the following:

Amethyst point

Clear quartz point

Small skull

Small dragon

Amethyst star (removed from its pouch to conceal its theft)

A chipstone bracelet

I could clearly see the points being lifted on the CCTV so I went outside (they were sat on a bench just outside the shop with who I assume was their mother!) I confronted them showing them the CCTV on my phone. The mother was not bothered one bit as I was pointing out they had left the shop without paying and eventually the kids gave me the 2 points back, mum didn't tell the kids off or ask them why they did it. As we say in the north she was very "Hard Faced"

Unfortunately I hadn't been able to see the other things being stolen until I watched the video more closely later, by this time they had long gone. However I did see on the video that the mother had been on the bench outside the whole time and it certainly looked like she had sent them into the shop.

Since these are just children I do not feel comfortable with a normal working, but they have clearly been shown how to steal. It was like watching professionals and these are not easy items to lift.

Sorry for the rant, but its a bit raw seeing little kids being abused like this, What would be your take and what would you do in this situation, police aren't interested in small value shop lifting and I won't work magic on children.

 

[thepolestar]

Just place better protections around the shop, especially the door. There's not much you can do in this situation because those kids are being groomed and brainwashed by a very sick woman.

 

[Durward]

It is rare that they come back after being caught. You can likely print the faces, and put them up on the wall with a ban from the store. I also assume the mother put them up to it. I used to have to deal with this a lot, mainly from the nomad crowds. The entire culture used to rotate around theft.
My mother used to have an easy fix for this, on a smaller scale. She would leave a box of 'free stuff' up front, like bait, and the clepto crowd can't help but feed that need to steal by taking things from there. Little do they know, those items are free anyway. So, you could bait them by leaving things out or easier to access that have little or no value, are damaged, or otherwise written off.
I also used to get called in when the elderly would dump the entire condiments container in their purses or shopping bags. Sometimes I would just ask how much it costs to fill it up, so give it a monetary value, and when they told me I would give the business that money out of my pocket, and tell them my time is more valuable than this petty theft. So, I get the problems with police showing up for it. Again, banning them works.
It is rather a compliment that they wanted to steal your items, either for value or because they had a desire to own them, perhaps the mom is filling her gift closet?
I probably would have told those kids a white lie about everything in the shop being cursed and that you only remove the curse if someone pays for it, so it's a good thing you gave these back, who knows what would have happened to you or your mother. Whew... If they aren't hardened past imagination, the one who is sweating with big eyes is likely still holding something.
I know you said the shop is still new, and I don't know the law there for writing things off, but you might be able to record those losses so they don't eat your profit so much.

 

[GanGreenGroin]

It is rare that they come back after being caught. You can likely print the faces, and put them up on the wall with a ban from the store. I also assume the mother put them up to it. I used to have to deal with this a lot, mainly from the nomad crowds. The entire culture used to rotate around theft.
My mother used to have an easy fix for this, on a smaller scale. She would leave a box of 'free stuff' up front, like bait, and the clepto crowd can't help but feed that need to steal by taking things from there. Little do they know, those items are free anyway. So, you could bait them by leaving things out or easier to access that have little or no value, are damaged, or otherwise written off.
I also used to get called in when the elderly would dump the entire condiments container in their purses or shopping bags. Sometimes I would just ask how much it costs to fill it up, so give it a monetary value, and when they told me I would give the business that money out of my pocket, and tell them my time is more valuable than this petty theft. So, I get the problems with police showing up for it. Again, banning them works.
It is rather a compliment that they wanted to steal your items, either for value or because they had a desire to own them, perhaps the mom is filling her gift closet?
I probably would have told those kids a white lie about everything in the shop being cursed and that you only remove the curse if someone pays for it, so it's a good thing you gave these back, who knows what would have happened to you or your mother. Whew... If they aren't hardened past imagination, the one who is sweating with big eyes is likely still holding something.
I know you said the shop is still new, and I don't know the law there for writing things off, but you might be able to record those losses so they don't eat your profit so much.

Some really good advise, thanks for taking the time to explain.
Definitely going to look into the free box, thats genius, kudos to your mum!