Vancouver retailers applaud anti-theft task force amid ‘egregious’ shoplifting spike

When security staff at Vancouver’s Gourmet Warehouse store caught a shoplifter in November and asked him to replace the stolen items, the incident didn’t stop there, said owner Caren McSherry.Instead, she said the man took out a “big stick” and swiped it along the shelf, sending about $2,000 worth of Le Creuset roasting pans to smash on the floor.“What do you do? You can’t call insurance. You just have to suck it up,” said McSherry. “But when this happens over and over and over and over and over again, it’s sad.”