Illawarra retailers battle against thieves as shoplifting reaches 10-year high

During the past 12 months there were 1436 theft from retail store crimes reported to police, this is a 65 per cent increase on the 869 cases a decade ago.

On average police are receiving four reports a day from retailers, while Coles in Wollongong Central recently installed exit gates to help prevent theft.

Year-on-year retail thefts have jumped 43 per cent from 1004 to 1436, that's an extra 432 incidents of items being robbed from local shops.

The vast majority of these incidents have occurred in Wollongong (1122) compared to Shellharbour (307) and Kiama which had just six incidents during the year.

Helensburgh resident Rebecca Vossen wasn't surprised by the retail theft data and wondered whether cost of living or "keeping up with their friends" were reasons behind the spike.

"I would like to see something about the seriousness of stealing for anyone who works in the retail space," she said.

"It's really quite hurtful for those [retail shops] who are involved in the tail end of it all."

IT student at the University of Wollongong, Dhruv Solanki, has only been in Australia for six months and was surprised at how expensive grocery items are.

His friend Disha Darji said "they steal because there's no options left" due to the rising cost of living.

Steal from motor vehicle crimes also jumped in the Illawarra - from 1352 to 1518 (up 12.3 per cent); other stealing offences increased from 1143 to 1309 (14.5 per cent).

Wollongong topped the list for these thefts, with 1181 steal from motor vehicle and 1009 other thefts, and a quick street survey showed residents weren't surprised.

Corrimal High School teacher Mel Bourke said families are struggling as the cost of living crisis hits.

"I've certainly noticed this year that I'm providing a lot more canteen vouchers to students that I have in the past," she said.

The data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research is for the 12 months to September 2023, and it shows many major crime categories have jumped in the Illawarra.

Dats shows the number of assaults, murders, and break and enters have risen in some parts of the region, but there have been some reductions in a number of crimes in the Illawarra.

Domestic violence assaults jumped by 8.2 per cent (913 to 988), while non-domestic violence increased 11.5 per cent (from 992 cases to 1106).

During the 12-month period there were 643 home break-ins in the Illawarra (up 4.0 per cent), with 517 of those in Wollongong. There were an extra 25 non-dwelling break-ins (up 10.8 per cent).

An additional 23 people were sexually assaulted in the Illawarra this year with a total of 301 compared to 278 the year before.

Amid the increases in Wollongong, cases of sexual touching fell by 11.3 per cent to 165 during the year.

In Shellharbour there were 10 less break and enters (but still 102 during the year), six less vehicles stolen (96 during the year) and 15 less cases of malicious damage to property (441 during the year).

Kiama had far less crime that other Illawarra LGAs and while sexual touching was up 76 per cent to 23 cases during the year, sexual assaults were down (17 to nine), so were break and enter non-dwelling (18 to 12), steal from motor vehicle (79 to 75) and malicious damage (70 to 62)

Police declined to comment on the data.