Thief spate update

I was approached late last night by a woman with her children, the eldest of which has just started school. She's a familiar face, a regular customer and in her own way quite decent. I don't know her life story but it hasn't been easy. I first encountered her down our wines and spirits aisle when she was trying to find a particular wine for someone. That section is hard enough at the best of times, and she had no idea what she was looking for.

Moreover, and this was the tough bit, she lacks even the reading skills to distinguish one wine from another. It was written all over her face that it was taking a large dollop of courage to approach me and say what she did, but she got the words "I have a problem with reading" out and since I knew the particular wine she wanted I was able to get her the bottle without any drama.

The little vignette stuck in my mind with her eldest then approaching school age. I know the extent to which the school expects parents to support their child's earliest years when they learn to read. This mother can't do that. Without additional support her child will be left behind and before we know it a generation from now his children will be needing third-party support to make up for the fact that he in turn can't help them.

As you'd expect she lives on one of the two rough estates built to accommodate overflow from larger urban centres and dilute those people who in the States would be called trailer trash across the county.

What she approached me about was theft being perpetrated on an almost industrial scale, against us. High value alcohol, toiletries, baby products, expensive joints of meat. The thieves are running a 'to order' business from the estate including supplying alcohol to under-age drinkers.

She gave me a vague description and an address. This was courageous of her though not quite as noble as it first appeared. She's been aware of their activities for some time but has decided now to inform against them because the night before those people had broken into her flat and taken out anything they could carry, which suggests she's in the process of learning a rather tough lesson.

This will all be passed to the police and we'll do our best to ensure that no suspicion that she's informed will be aroused.