In an ugly incident, a leading convenience retailer and postmaster in Pembrokeshire was left reeling in shock and fury after being brutally assaulted by a violent shoplifter in his own store.
Retailer Vince Malone runs Tenby Stores and Post Office in the seaside town of Pembrokeshire, alongside his wife Fiona Malone. In the afternoon of Thursday (8), Tenby Stores was targeted twice by a shoplifter. During his second visit to the store, the shoplifter was confronted after which he got violent and abusive and ended up punching Vince in the face.
Talking about the incident, Fiona told Asian Trader, “This shoplifter came in the morning and then he came again around afternoon. One of our members of staff alerted us through our headsets.
“So I went out to challenge him and say that he'd stolen from us and he needed to pay for the products. I took him to the till and he did pay for that item. However, he was getting very abusive with me and started swearing and yelling.
“On hearing the commotion, Vince came over and tried to get the guy out of the store because obviously we don't want people like that in the shop when other customers are around.
“Unfortunately, just as Vince was telling him that he was banned from the store, this guy punched him in the face. The punch was so bad that it knocked off his glasses and the headset as well," Fiona said.
Police was called and they came within five to 10 minutes. The culprit however managed to flee.
Expressing her frustration and shock over the incident that left the couple shaken, Fiona added, “It could have been me. He was being very aggressive towards me. All I asked him to do is to pay for what he stole. He should have been apologizing to me for even attempting to steal. But instead, he got so much aggressive.
"Our family is disturbed. Our children as well heard about the incident, so they are also worried. One of them works with us, but we also got a little 11-year-old who is really worried about us going to work and that should never be the case.
“It's not something that we normally have here. We do have a lot of shoplifting incidents and sometimes lots of verbal abuse too but not this kind of physical violence. We are angry and frustrated to see that people increasingly feel it's OK to steal from shops and when they get are caught, their reaction immediately is to turn violent.”
The couple has circulated the images of the shoplifter asking other retailers to be on alert and on the look out.
Fiona told Asian Trader, "We have a group called Shop Watch. So I have sent the photo out to all the shops asking people to look out for this person, but obviously not to approach him because he's obviously very violent.”
Fiona also added that this shoplifter was definitely not stealing to “feed his family”, smashing the claim that it is rise in cost of living that is driving people to steal.
“He stole a bottle of wine in the morning. And when he came again and I confronted him, he was again trying to steal a bottle of wine," she said.
The store is equipped with AI-powered X-hoppers that help the staff to detect stealing-like movements. The couple is now more alert to make sure that the store staff continues to remain safe.
“Tools like X-hoppers does help in handling and confronting such situations but we always tell our staff to not to tackle anyone and just let them go. Its just this time I felt it's my shop and my stock that someone is stealing and its my right to confront him so I did.”
Fiona further added that this man was not a local. She suspected him to be some contractor who is in the town temporarily.
She said, "Ours is a seaside town so we have got a lot of transient population. However, it is important to know who the culprit was. His identity should go in the criminal database and police across the country should be aware of what this person has been doing in other areas.
“We are just really angry because we here work seven days a week, trying to provide a vital service to the community, since we also have a post office. Despite all that, some people think it’s okay to steal and shoplift and to top that, they now think they can hit us!"
