A man was left horrified after discovering his local Co-op had reportedly put blocks of cheese into security boxes.
Conor Macc was walking through the supermarket when he spotted the product.
In a now-viral TikTok, he shows cheeses in a Southhampton branch that range in price from £2.95 to £3.95 – which appear to be in security boxes.
The video has left social media users shocked, racking up 1.6 million views.
“I can’t believe they’re actually doing this in shops now,” Conor told NeedToKnow.co.uk.
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“I’m in a Co-op [and there’s] blocks of cheese put in f**king plastic containers so people aren’t robbing cheese.
“What the f**k has the UK come to?
“All that cheese locked up. You can’t steal it.”
The video was originally posted on 16 January and has since received a strong response from people online.
“I think when stuff like this starts happening it’s a very dire warning to a government. People stealing necessities [and] not fun stuff is a red flag,” said one viewer.
Someone else added: “Funny thing is we are getting robbed by the price.”
“You can’t even blame people look at the prices. We are fine to get robbed. But if we rob we are breaking the law,” said another person.
“It’s to stop the mice getting at it. Not a lot of people know that,” joked another user.
Conor added: “To give some context, this was such a shock to me as I’ve currently spent the last nine months living in Dubai – the city is extremely safe and you never see or hear of theft.
“This particular Co-op is across the road from my childhood home of 25 years and I’d never heard of this Co-op shop being stolen from – which is another reason why I was so shocked.”
Jam Press contacted Co-op for comment.
A spokesperson said: “Retail crime in many communities is increasing – it is an ongoing challenge for all retailers and it is known that repeat and prolific offenders are driving serious incidents of brazen and violent theft in stores.
“Safety and security is a key priority [for the] Co-op.
“[We] invest significantly in a wide range of measures to keep colleagues and stores safe – this includes security boxes for higher value items which have been used for a number of years where there are local challenges.
“While we are doing all we can, we also need all police forces to play their part too so that criminals start to realise that there are real consequences to their actions.”
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