Adult store owners left reeling after a spate of thefts use a ‘Wall of Shame’ to embarrass shoplifters who have stolen sex toys – forcing them to pay up
- Sex shop in New Zealand setup a ‘Wall of Shame’ to embarrass alleged thieves
- The ‘Peaches and Cream’ string of adult stores says the tactic is working well
- One of the store managers said they employ someone to trawl through CCTV
- Mel Vogel said tactic gives thieves chance to pay up before they go to the police
The owners of an adult store that experienced a spate of sex toy thefts have set up their own ‘Wall of Shame’ in an effort to embarrass thieves into paying for what they stole.
The Facebook page of the Peaches and Cream chain of sex shops in New Zealand shares CCTV pictures of people they allege have stolen from their stores.
The adult store has shared photos of more than 28 people they claim have stolen sex toys – pocketing items such as dildos and fake vaginas.
The adult store has shared photos (pictured) of more than 28 people they claim have stolen sex toys
The owners of an adult store that experienced a spate of sex toy thefts have setup their own ‘Wall of Shame’ in an effort to embarrass offenders into doing the right thing
The business Facebook page of the Peaches and Cream string of sex shops in New Zealand now posts CCTV pictures of people they allege have participated in sex toy heists
One of the alleged thieves was surprised to find her image on the business’s page
Other people speculated about what motivated the robbers
Peaches and Cream have been using the method since January 2019 – saying the tactic has the dual advantages of crowdsourcing information such as names and also embarrassing offenders into paying up.
Manager at one of the franchise’s 12 stores, Mel Vogel, who has been with the company for six years said thieves will try and nab anything not nailed down or behind glass.
This includes the display items and, it gets weirder, items from the trash.
‘We actually had to start cutting the toys that we threw away in half because people would go through the rubbish bins at least five times a day trying to retrieve stuff,’ Vogel told okwhatever.
She said after working in the store for so many years there is not a particular type of person she could spot as a thief.
The images from the business’s ‘Wall of Shame’ show this to be the case with pictures of grey haired academic types with glasses, hipsters with man-buns, young ladies with expensive jewelry, and surfer dudes in board shorts splashed on the page.
In October 2019 an Elvis Presley impersonator was caught on CCTV pocketing a plastic vagina and prompting a police investigation.
He had tried to purchase the item a month earlier but his card had been declined.
An Elvis impersonator was caught on CCTV allegedly stealing from the store in 2019
Staff member at that store Kat Maher said the Auckland shop had been robbed about once a week with the discerning thieves targeting high-end items.
She said in another incident a woman stole vibrating sex toys and bolted out of the store into a waiting getaway car.
Maher said the woman acted so quickly that she must have been planning the caper for a while.
In another incident the store in the town of Petone was targeted by two women described as ‘rugged-looking’ who stole more than $1,000 worth of items including leopard printed clothing.
‘I think when people rip places off, they don’t actually think that it’s a person they’re doing it to, you know? They just look at it as a business and they don’t see that there are actually lots of people behind it who get affected,’ Ms Vogel said.
Staff member at that store Kat Maher said the Auckland shop had been robbed about once a week with the discerning thieves targeting high-end items
Peaches and Cream have been using the method since January 2019 – saying the tactic has the dual advantages of crowdsourcing information such as names and also embarrassing offenders into paying up
She said the company discourages staff from chasing down offenders but does employ a person whose only job is to trawl through CCTV footage and identify possible thieves.
She said the stores approach gives the thieves a chance to return to the store and pay up – they don’t want the items back – before they hand the matter over to the police.
‘A lot of people do own up and pay, The people we’ve shamed on social media also don’t seem to come back and do it again, so that’s good.’ Ms Vogel said.
One of the store managers at ‘Peaches & Cream’ says the tactic is working well