Convenience store owner Pal Mann has many tasks, with one - spotting shoplifters - seemingly as regular as opening up.

As the issue gets "progressively worse", thefts are not isolated to a particular age group, he says.

"We see young kids, from eight or nine years old," he told the BBC. "The oldest I've ever collared was an 82-year-old woman."

"I have seen an increase over the years," he said. "They're brazen because there's no comeback.

"One guy came in... I thought he had a baby in the pusher. By the time I caught up with him there was no baby [there]... He just had a load of baby formula."

His comments follow a BBC investigation into the extent of shoplifting across England.

Earlier this week, a BBC team filmed men with rucksacks emptying a fridge of energy drinks at a branch of Greggs in Bearwood, near Birmingham.

Staff said thieves targeted the outlet multiple times a day, and they faced abuse, sometimes violent, if they tried to stop the offenders.

Policing minister Sarah Jones described the footage as "horrific", adding: "It's not something we should accept".

While Greggs staff are advised by bosses to remain behind the counter rather than intervene, Mann said independent traders like him were more likely to take matters into their own hands.

"It's like someone coming into my shop and taking a tenner out of my pocket," he said.

The 82-year-old thief had been a regular, whom he eventually realised was helping herself to a couple of extra items every time she filled her basket.

"God knows how long she had been doing it for," he said, adding he did not report her to police, but banned her permanently.

"It breaks your heart when you see someone of that age."

The store owner said when he reported incidents to police, he did not not always hear back, despite sometimes providing clear CCTV images with facial recognition software and even thieves' car registrations.

"People can get a speeding ticket delivered to their house within 48 hours if they're speeding yet they can't be picked up for shoplifting," he said.

He claimed he had not seen a community police officer for four or five years and added: "It would be nice if somebody did come round."

A spokesperson for West Midlands Police said: "We are working hard to tackle shop theft in Birmingham and are committed to targeting prolific offenders.

"We work closely with store security and business owners to identify those that cause the most harm in our communities.

"In Birmingham, we have a dedicated retail crime team focussed on protecting retail workers, supporting businesses, and bringing offenders before the courts."

Across the West Midlands, police recorded 31,786 shoplifting offences between 2025 and 2026, the seventh highest rate in England and Wales.

Data analysis shows police forces across England and Wales, excluding the British Transport Police, recorded a total 502,011 shoplifting offences in the same period.

This is down 5% from a record high of 525,741 in 2024-25, but up by 50% from 334,976 in 2015-16.

Gary Sahota from retail security provider Invotech in Walsall agreed offenders had become more brazen.

"Before it was covert," he said. "Now we have targeted shoplifting, we have gang-related shoplifting, we have more aggressive shoplifting. And they're nicking stuff that they weren't nicking before."

Existing CCTV systems were often inadequate, he said, or pointing in the wrong direction, or not being cleaned.

Jones told BBC Radio WM that shoplifting had been treated as a low-level crime for too long, and it was key to report incidents to police.

She cited an increase in neighbourhood officers in the West Midlands force, with an additional 350 compared to this time last year.

Better use of technology such as CCTV was needed to tackle the problem, she added, as was apprehending prolific offenders using theft to feed addiction.

"We have to target resources to them, in terms of getting them into treatment so we can tackle the addictions they have," she said. "But we also need to make sure there are consequences for their actions."

The minister said the government was introducing Respect orders in October, a tool allowing police to ban repeat offenders from town centres.

In addition, she said, the government was funding a national investigation into organised criminal gangs that were "driving a lot of this, that are making the real money".

"This is something that makes you feel unsafe in your own community, it cannot be right that we let it carry on."

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