'He threatened to headbutt me' - shopworkers under attack

For store manager Nicola Lewis, shoplifting has become part and parcel of her working life. "It's horrendous. [It happens] at least two, three times a week, you get violence with it," Lewis said. Lewis - who works at Heron Foods in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and described being verbally abused as "mild" - explained she had been assaulted by a man trying to steal vapes, and has had an offender pull a screwdriver on her in a past job at a different shop. The store manager's story comes as nearly 1,000 shopworkers surveyed by their union Usdaw said they had been attacked last year. Nearly 5,000 said they had been threatened and about 7,000 said they had been abused. Joanne Thomas, Usdaw general secretary, said: "No-one should feel afraid to go to work. "They [shop workers] provide an essential service and deserve our respect and the protection of the law." Lewis said she was assaulted by a shoplifter last month. "A guy actually threatened to headbutt me, literally assaulted me and pushed my shoulder because I asked him to get out the shop because he was trying to pinch vapes," she said. The manager also said one of her staff members was injured recently after confronting a shoplifter

Mar 19, 2026 → Mar 19, 2026