A shopkeeper has vowed to keep his shoplifting signs up in his store after being told by police that they were "offensive".
Rob Davies from Wrexham declared the ordeal was "absolutely mad" after he was recommended by officers to take down his signs, which branded shoplifters "scumbags".
Davies, who owns vintage clothing store Run Ragged, displayed signs in his shop which read: "Due to scumbags shoplifting, please ask for assistance to open cabinets. Thank you."
GB News / Run Ragged
|Shopkeeper Rob Davies has vowed to keep his shoplifting signs after he was told by police that they were 'offensive'
Expressing his outrage at the ordeal, Davies declared his "signs will stay" in his shop and the police's actions were "overkill".
He explained: "I try not to cause offence to most people wherever possible, but I don't see the use of the word scumbag as anything other than accurate.
"It was absolutely mad that they even came in, and I understand that all they were trying to do was give me a heads up, but I think it's just overkill."
Criticising the use of police time by the officers, Davies added: "They have other things that they should be doing, like catching people who are stealing from shops.
Run Ragged
| The handwritten note was put up by the shopkeeper after repeated thefts"But I just couldn't believe it, and this is why I put it onto my shop's page, just to show how ridiculous it was."
Highlighting the spike in shoplifting in his store, which resulted in his signs being displayed, Davies told GB News that he can "only be so vigilant" as a singular shopkeeper.
Davies said: "I try to be as vigilant as possible, but you can't keep an eye on everybody. I'm a one-man band, there's only me in my shop, and it's a reasonably sized shop, and there are a lot of items in it.
"But what annoys me most is this is not a shop that you go into because you need something, you go into my shop because you would like to have something.
"It's an impulse purchase shop more than anything, being retro and vintage, and some of the items are worth quite a lot of money.
"But irrelevant of what they're worth, if somebody's stealing, if I lose £200 in a month, that is my profit a lot of the time, especially since Covid."
He added: "And I have other bills to pay, I have my own bills to pay, and it's getting to the stage where every single penny counts. Small businesses are still rebuilding after Covid, we're still trying to get people off the internet and back into our shops.
GB News
|Davies told GB News that his description of the thieves as scumbags is 'nothing other than accurate'
"And if I can't fill my shop with the right goods and they be left there and not stolen from me, I don't see a way forward.
"I can put the signs up or lock my cabinets, that'll help alleviate some of the major thefts, and hopefully be more vigilant. I have CCTV, I have it recording, but when you involve the police these days, it appears that if it's under a certain financial level, they're not interested."
Declaring that his signs will be "staying up" despite the visit from police, Davies told GB News: "I spent a couple of days thinking about how I could word my note, and I couldn't come up with anybody that would be offended by it apart from those that were willing to steal from me.
"I've left them up. My writing is quite spidery, so I actually got them printed out, and all my cabinets are now installed with them, and they will stay.
"I asked the officer at the time, 'Is the sign illegal?', and he said no. I said they will be staying then. If anything, they may become larger, just to make sure that everybody sees them."
In a statement, Wrexham Police said: "All reports of shoplifting are taken extremely seriously, and we are committed to combating retail theft in the city.
"Protecting staff, businesses and customers from this type of criminality, which has created a significant impact on their wellbeing and business, is a priority in Wrexham."