Retailers in Cologne have a growing problem with shoplifting. Almost 40 crimes per working day were reported to the police last year, a total of 11,600 – a record figure. That is 27 percent more than in 2022 and also significantly more than in the pre-Corona year of 2019, when there were 9,100 crimes. According to crime statistics, the increase was particularly drastic in shops in the city center, in Ehrenfeld and in Kalk.
But the numbers have also risen in all other Cologne police stations, in some cases to the highest level in ten years. Most thefts were reported in the city center. When asked, a police spokeswoman attributed this primarily to the city center location with Schildergasse, Hohe Straße and Ehrenstraße. In the area of Police Station 3 in Ehrenfeld, most of the crimes were reported on Venloer Straße, in Kalk among other places in the Köln-Arcaden.
Damage caused by shoplifting amounts to four billion euros nationwide
It is unclear what financial damage shoplifters caused in Cologne last year. According to a recent study by the Cologne-based retail research institute EHI Retail Institute eV, the total nationwide damage caused by shoplifting last year was 4.1 billion euros.
According to estimates by the companies surveyed, shoplifting by customers accounts for around 2.8 billion euros. The company’s own employees are blamed for losses of 910 million euros, and the staff of suppliers and service companies are blamed for 370 million euros. Statistically speaking, this means that every German loses 34 euros worth of goods every year that are not paid for.
According to EHI, however, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as scientists say that less than two percent of shoplifting incidents are reported. The rest usually go undetected. Another reason for this low number is a certain “reporting fatigue” due to a lack of prosecution and effective punishment of the perpetrators, write the authors of the study. In a nutshell, this means that around 24 million shoplifting incidents worth 117 euros each go undetected across Germany every year.
Cologne: Food, video games and cosmetics are in demand
The items most sought after by the perpetrators in the food trade are alcohol and tobacco, in fashion stores high-quality clothing as well as sunglasses, scarves, shawls and belts, in technology stores storage media, console and video games and in hardware stores battery-operated machines in particular. Cosmetics as well as meat and sausage products were also frequently stolen.
One reason for the increase in thefts is the recent sharp rise in the price of many products, says Frank Horst, head of the EHI study. “As a result, some people have got into financial difficulties and have stolen more frequently.” Another problem is the shortage of skilled workers in retail. This makes it easier for thieves.
Ten years ago, for example, “99 percent of thefts were committed by drug addicts,” the manager of a supermarket in Mülheim told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” newspaper a while ago. Over the years, the picture has changed. His detectives and the surveillance cameras now catch pensioners and children, fathers and mothers for whom children act as lookouts, people on the social fringes, even middle-class people.
Of course, thefts in supermarkets are a good indicator of the state of a society, adds an experienced Cologne store detective who does not want his name to appear in the newspaper. “The poorer people are, the more is stolen. It has always been that way and will remain that way.” In addition, retailers and the police are concerned about the growing number of professional gangs who commit thefts professionally and on a large scale.
Given the high number of unreported cases (estimated at 98 percent of all shoplifting cases), conclusions about the perpetrators must be treated with great caution. But at least this is known: 60 percent of the suspects identified last year were men. According to the EHI researchers, the proportion of foreigners was 46.4 percent (previous year 43.4 percent), almost four times as high as the corresponding proportion of the population of around twelve percent.
