CCTV has emerged of a woman leaving a Darlington women's clothing shop after taking a top and stuffing it into her bag.
Women's clothing store ZeeMu released CCTV footage on Sunday (May 7) showing a woman entering their store before taking an item of clothing, putting it into her bag, and leaving.
The store have said this a reoccurring issue and a small, independent business such as theirs cannot afford to keep suffering this.
They have appealed to the public to help identify the person captured in the video, and said they will be taking it to the police.
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A ZeeMu spokesperson also said they are considering closing the store unless something can be done due to the continued loss of stock.
They said: "She comes to our shop every other day, takes stuff and goes, and to be honest, nothing can be done by the police, nobody can stop her, she's so brazen.
"We're having a call with a police officer tomorrow, and I'm thinking of meeting with a local councillor, otherwise, we are thinking to close this business.
"We're a small business, we are not making loads of money, you know the economy, the way it's going.
"It's very hard for us to continue the business, the only reason is we don't want to leave the staff out of work, we honestly feel sad for them.
"These types of things really affect us, financially obviously, but mentally it kind of stresses the staff out.
"I don't know what to do to be honest, I was talking with my partners and said look, [let's] try our best, if not, then we're probably going to close this business because we can't take this stress anymore. Nobody's there to help us."
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They said ZeeMu have generated around four to five jobs in the Darlington area and actions like this affect their business.
They added that many of the store's workers are young and instances like these are stressful for them.
They said they have only been able to recoup their losses from instances of shoplifting once, after one of their previous appeals resulted in the person paying for the item.
They said despite reporting the instances to police, they had not seen money returned as a result of this.
They said the worst effect this has had on the store is not the financial hit, but the mental toll it has had on workers who feel they have to remain alert.
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They said many of the items taken by shoplifters tend to be in range of £17-20, but the cumulative cost of this affects their profit margin.
Adding to this, they said business has been more difficult due to the cost-of-living crisis and rising costs affecting customers.
They said they did not want to post the appeal on social media as it might spread negativity, but felt this was their only option to deter this behaviour.
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