A group of self-styled ‘Robin Hoods’ are bragging on social media that they stole from Marks & Spencer to give to food banks.
Campaigners from Everybody Eats, a group calling for direct action on food poverty, claim they launched their first raid at an M&S Foodhall in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester.
They also claim they will replicate ‘this all across the country’ until the government answers their demands on food security, The Telegraph reported.
Everybody Eats claimed that food banks were aware that the goods were stolen and suggested its members had been asked to help.
They posted a picture on X/Twitter of five bags of food including Percy Pig sweets.
The caption read: ‘Today we took food from an M&S in Manchester without paying for it. The food will now be distributed straight to people in the community as well as local food banks.
‘We cannot sit by as we and our friends, our families, our neighbours starve.’
They were filmed happily walking into M&S before stealing the food and walking out again smirking.
No security guards or shop assistants are seen intervening in the clip.
In the video, an activist said: ‘What we do is we go into major supermarkets and liberate food essentials to distribute to food banks and those living in the area who are in food poverty.
‘Supermarkets make huge profits off rising prices of essential items in this cost of living crisis.
‘A lot of their own staff are living in food poverty and use food banks. We’ve been asked by food banks for their help.
‘It is the right thing to do, people are hungry in the land of plenty and I think that’s obscene.’
The activists then posed with the food, dressed as Robin Hood. Some covered their faces but others didn’t.
There have been no reports of anyone being arrested for the stunt, so far.
One of the activists, Charlie Peterson, 42, likened his group to The Suffragettes.
MailOnline contacted Greater Manchester Police for comment.
Graham Wynn, assistant director of regulation at the BRC, told The Telegraph: ‘Stealing – however small – is not a victimless crime. The £1.8 billion a year lost to shop theft would be better spent investing in lower prices and better service for customers.
‘Meanwhile, retailers are forced to spend a further £1.2 billion a year on anti-crime measures such as CCTV, security personnel and anti-theft devices.’
It comes amid an already widespread shoplifting epidemic seen across the UK.
Shoplifting reached its highest level in two decades last year, according to the Office for National Statistics released in January.
The British Retail Consortium said thefts cost retailers £1.8billion in 2022-23, up from £953million the previous year.
The rise in crime has also seen everyday food items being locked behind security cabinets or with tags added to them to deter crime.
The Metropolitan Police has told of introducing its own ‘game-changing’ facial recognition technology to capture prolific shoplifters, matching retailers’ CCTV imagery with Scotland Yard’s custody shots.
Meanwhile, an ex-Scotland Yard detective now heads a company dubbed Britain’s first ‘private police force’ in a bid to tackle crime such as shoplifting – working with retail giants such as Apple, Fortnum & Mason, Louis Vuitton, Mulberry.
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