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CRIME

German stores lose billions each year to shoplifting

German retailers suffer €4 billion in losses each year to shoplifting and theft from employees and contractors, according to a study released by the European Retail Institute Wednesday.

Published: 17 June 2009 14:49 CEST
German stores lose billions each year to shoplifting
Photo: DPA

Roughly half the losses come from customers pocketing goods without paying, the other half from dishonest company insiders.

The amount of theft is so great that were every German household to start shoplifting, each one would be able to nick €50 worth of goods per year, the report said.

Due to the recession, the institute says shoplifting has increased six percent in 2009 compared to last year.

Some of the most shoplifted articles include disposable razors, batteries, tobacco products and condoms. Among the apparel items most frequently stolen are lingerie and name-brand clothes.

The theft also costs the German government €400 million a year in lost sales taxes, concluded the report.

In addition to the losses, the industry spends over €1 billion each year monitoring inventory and protecting against theft.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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