A video has emerged which appears to show a woman attempting to break loose from a Tesco as staff try to keep her inside until she flees on a mobility scooter.

Footage posted on TikTok shows a person trying to squeeze through automatic doors that are closing before they seal shut.

The woman, who witnesses claimed was ‘shoplifting’, who has one leg, then gets on her mobility scooter and instead drives into the doors in attempt to open them. 

The doors start to give way from the bottom as she batters through them but just as it looks like they may open, the shutters on the shop start to come down.

As the 40-second-long video, which has the theme song from The Great Escape playing in the background, comes to an end, the alleged ‘thief’ manages to get through the doors and drives off on the scooter. 

It comes amid an alarming increasing in shoplifting up and down the country. Supermarket and retail bosses have accused police of failing to take the crime seriously, meaning shop owners are being forced to take the law into their own hands.

It is not known which Tesco the incident pictured took place at, but is understood to be a store in Liverpool. 

A video appears to show a ‘thief’ attempting to break loose from a Tesco as staff try to keep her inside until police arrive, before she flees on a mobility scooter

Footage posted on TikTok shows a person trying to squeeze through automatic doors that are closing before they seal shut

Amid the rise in thefts, a string of retail bosses have warned of the trend and demanded more action from police and prosecutors. 

John Lewis, Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Boots are now issuing staff bodycams and training to deter violence from aggressive thieves while at Dunelm, duvets and pillowcases were locked up in PIN-code protected cabinets.

And Primark CEO George Weston said it was time for the shoplifting crisis to be taken ‘more seriously’. He said Primark had experienced rising cases of both shoplifting and attacks on its employees.

The high street fast-fashion chain is among the stores to be issuing more body cameras to staff as well as increasing the use of CCTV in branches. 

The cost of living crisis has been cited by some, including John Lewis chief Dame Sharon White, as a reason behind the surge.

But Mr Weston, chief executive of Primark’s owner, Associated British Foods, said law enforcement agencies also needed to take tougher action against the offenders.

He said: ‘We need chief constables to recognise the problem this now represents. We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take theft and assault more seriously.

‘We need the Crown Prosecution Service to take theft and assault more seriously.

‘We need magistrates to deal with thieves and violent offenders perhaps more sternly than they have been doing in the past. We will play our part but we need authorities to as well.’ 

Eoin Tonge, chief financial officer of ABF, said there had been an astonishing rise in the ‘glorification of nicking on social media’. 

The ‘thief’, who has one leg, then gets on her mobility scooter and instead drives into the doors in attempt to open them

The doors start to give way from the bottom as she batters through them but just as it looks like they may open, the shutters on the shop start to come down

He said that users were posting ‘just nicked this from Primark’ to their mates for ‘likes’. 

‘I think the cost of living crisis has given some people a societal excuse that they can just go out and nick what they want,’ Mr Tonge told The Sun.   

Some shoplifters are even using TikTok to share tips on how to steal from stores and adopting codewords like ‘borrowing’ to avoid detection by the social media site’s filters.

One user ranked stores out of ten based on how easy they were to steal from, with Asda given top marks because its branches are ‘so easy’ to target.