1076 coups in Carinthia

Drugstore crime scene: high season for brazen shoplifters

Whether it's professional gangs passing through or "hobby thieves" - local stores record losses in the millions every year. And only a fraction of thieves are caught.  

And the Christmas season is just around the corner - when, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office, experience shows that shoplifting increases. Especially in financially difficult times like these. Illegal shoplifting also usually increases towards the end of the month. In Carinthia alone, a record high number of reports were filed in 2023 (see chart). And the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher.

The bare figures prove it: Shoplifting is very popular with criminals.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

Especially as store detectives are only deployed irregularly and many thefts are only detected during stocktaking. In any case, the total amount of damage to local stores is enormous - and runs into the millions every year. However, those thieves who take a piece of chewing gum or a lipstick as a test of courage, or consume a sugar pretzel in the store and don't pay, "don't really matter", as one Carinthian investigator reveals.

The real problem are gangs that operate highly professionally, usually in teams of two, and usually loot the stores with prepared bags. Most of them come from abroad and travel across Austria, striking mainly in drugstores. They target expensive perfumes as well as razor blades.

Loot ends up abroad by post
Experience shows that the loot is first collected and stashed somewhere before being sent back home by post (usually Eastern Europe). Where they are then turned into money on the black market. Particularly striking: this year, it is mainly thieves from Georgia who regularly cause police operations in Carinthia.