The operation on Saturday, December 13 and Sunday, December 14 involved police working with local retailers to identify offenders, monitor hotspots and act when a theft occurred.
Stealing from a retail store was the third most recorded criminal incident for the year ending June 2025 in Greater Shepparton, with 564 incidents recorded, according to the Crime Statistics Agency’s latest report.
Senior Sergeant Shane Biderman said there was no one reason as to why people stole from retail stores.
“There’s no root cause for it,” he said.
“The scenarios that we had over the weekend was predominantly people going to barbecues and social gatherings.
“I think for some people it’s opportunistic, other people are trying to put food on the table.”
He said no-one arrested told police they were struggling; however, he wouldn’t necessarily expect them to.
“Every single person that we dealt with over the last two days, we did offer them referrals (to local support services) at the end,” Sen Sgt Biderman said.
“Not one person took us up on that, or indicated that they were going through any financial hardship, or reasoning as to why they were committing any offence.
“We can understand that dealing with police on the spot in a scenario like this can be quite confrontational.
“If anyone is struggling and they’re finding it tough, they can reach out to us (afterwards).”
Sen Sgt Biderman said the number of arrests police made when they ran the operation could fluctuate.
“We don’t necessarily want to have a high number,” he said.
“We’d like it to be zero, but 11 is about average.”
Sen Sgt Biderman said some of the areas police were targeting included major business hubs such as Coles in Shepparton and Kialla, and Bunnings, but they were still there to support smaller businesses if issues arose.
He said popular items being stolen included meat products, cosmetics and confectionery.
Two of the people arrested were released pending summons, and the others received on-the-spot cautions.
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