Council workers have just finished their works boarding up the shop window of a local sweet store located near Greenwich, South-East London. The incident is still under investigation; though local police have revealed the case not to have occurred with criminal intent.
The incident was first reported on the evening of December 30th 2017, by an unnamed shift worker, after reporting to have heard a huge crash from the front of the store whilst preparing to lock up in the back. The store manager – Steven Hardy - was then called to the store front, but claimed not to have seen or heard any traces of the perpetrators, whom the police believed to have fled the scene on foot.
In an interview with Hardy himself the manager claims incidents like these to be incredibly ‘rare within the area’ claiming this to be the ‘first time in over 5 years’ he’s had to contact police over a crime carried out on the store. ‘One of the downsides to the situation though would have to be the impact this whole thing has left upon my employees’ continues the manager, ‘many of them are now apprehensive about the idea of having to work late, in fears of a repeat attack, so it’s been my job to install new security features in order to assure them of their safety’.
Hardy’s lack of criminal encounters as a manager of 8 years can be reflected by the crime rates for shoplifting in the surrounding area of Greenwich Park recorded on the POLICE.UK website. The site displays reports of only 3 shoplifting crimes between December 2016 and November 2017, making up for a mere 7.32% of all crimes committed within this time period.
Taking into account the police comments, Hardy’s views and the POLICE.UK website statistics - and the fact that nothing was stolen - it is likely this incident did occur as an unreported accident and is hopefully one of few in the coming New Year.
