The struggle to make ends meet has turned into a heated confrontation between a mall security guard and a suspected grocery thief.
A dramatic vision emerged from an altercation between a guard and a customer in Balcatta, a middle-class suburb north of Perth.
The customer appeared to be trying to flee with a cart full of groceries.
Footage shows the guard and woman in an outstretched “arm wrestle” over the cart filled with groceries including toilet paper, cereal and Coke Zero.
The argument overflows onto a nearby road, before the guard intervenes.
“I showed her mate, I paid for it,” the woman said.
But the security guard is adamant and sends her back to the store.
WATCH THE VIDEO IN THE PLAYER ABOVE
“You stop that, let’s get back there,” he said.
It is unclear how the incident ended and WA Police confirmed they had not received a report.
There has been a 22% increase in shoplifting incidents in WA from 2021 to 2022, 7NEWS reported.
As interest rates hit a decade high, the RBA predicts mortgage repayments will consume 9.5% of household disposable income later this year.
Consumer spending showed signs of slowing as household budgets struggled amid an aggressive rate cycle.
“More fundamentally, the combination of cost of living pressures, rising interest rates and falling house values are weighing on consumption,” RBA Governor Philip Lowe said on Tuesday.
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