Thief-fluencers' viral shoplifting craze on TikTok

HAUL VIDEOS POSTED ONLINE

- By Paul Jeeves, Hannah Foley and Michael Knowles

SHOPLIFTING “influencers” are encouraging others to steal by posting sickening online videos showing luxury goods they claim to have swiped from struggling retailers.

The Express has uncovered a vast collection of these videos on social media sites which experts say are influencing impressionable youths to go out and copy their “expeditions”.

The videos are helping fuel a £2.2billion shoplifting epidemic across the UK with youths, middle class workers and even pensioners being encouraged to think of shoplifting as a “victimless crime”.

The Express has launched our Stop The Shoplifters crusade with a call to arms for increased action from police and politicians to crack down on the national scourge.

Key to our campaign aim is a demand for police forces nationwide to agree to attend all reports of shoplifting.

The British Retail Consortium says this would ensure shop staff feel it is worthwhile reporting offences, while officers’ attendance would act as a visible deterrent to thieves who feel they are almost guaranteed to get away without punishment.

But critics say there needs to be tighter policing of social media sites, both by police and the platforms.

The videos seen by the Express were found on TikTok — the most popular social media app for younger people — and are described as “racking”.

One clip discovered within seconds of entering the search term shows an array of beauty products with the message “First racking haul £72”.