MADINAH: Many shopping places and supermarkets are now using cameras to catch shoplifters and pickpockets. The cameras are also used to locate lost children and reunite them with their families.
Shopkeepers are also increasingly using metal tags on products that sound the alarm if the thief tried to steal it without paying. Many say that thievery is on the rise, though no official statistics are available to back up these claims that could be offered to illustrate a trend.
Abdul Elah Al-Saiyari, supervisor at Al-Qimma commercial center in Madinah, said that they are using these cameras to monitor the crowd. “There are many thieves who are hiding between the shoppers. Most of the pickpocketing and theft cases we catch are from women from other nationalities,” he said. Al-Saiyari said that in most times they release them after they promises not to repeat it again.
Faisal Al-Amin, a worker in a grocery shop in Madinah, said it is sad that they are increasing the security in this month when people with devious acts should take advantage of this holy month to repent from what they are doing.
“Cameras are helping us only as an evidence against the thieves,” he said. “I remember four years back when I saw a woman stealing something from the shop and I asked her to give it back. She shouted at me and created a large scene. I could not prove it because she might have given it to her friends.”
