Wollongong retailers cop rising costs of stealing: BOCSAR data

But there is one kind of "customer" he can do without: the thieving kind.

Shoplifting at the store, Beskar Popculture, has increased in the past six months, a trend Mr Laybutt believes driven by rising inflation and cost of living pressures.

"Last month I had a 19-year-old gentleman trying to stick four DVDs down his pants from the 50 per cent off clearance section," Mr Laybutt told the Mercury.

"And about six weeks ago I had a 40-year-old steal a $150 Harley Quinn baseball bat.

"Everything's recorded on camera and given to police, but usually the goods are gone by the time they finish investigating.

"They [thieves] are not the only ones doing it tough. Everyone's struggling but stealing from small business is not the answer. We've got a family and bills to pay too."

Quarterly data released on Thursday by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows largely steady crime rates across the Illawarra.

But instances of stealing from stores in the Wollongong LGA rose sharply, up almost 24 per cent in the year from December 2021 (701) to December 2022 (867).

At Byrne Surfboards store in Thirroul, where dozens of surf products worth $15,000 were stolen in an April 2021 break-in, owner Taylor Byrne has been left to foot the bill for the stolen goods, as well as upgraded security measures.

He said the man responsible for the thefts had since been given a two-year suspended jail sentence, and questions why penalties in the crime category aren't harsher.

"We lost $15,000 worth of goods. We can't work overtime to pay that money back - those good are actually gone," he said.

"For what we got left with, it was a slap on the wrist - it's not enough."

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