ALDI has been forced to slap anti-theft security stickers on £2 tubes of toothpaste after they became a target for shoplifters.
Boxes of individual Colgate and Sensodyne products are now protected using yellow patches that trigger alarms when crooks obsessed with whitening their gnashers try to pinch them.
The Sun found multiple products protected with tiny sensor labels at a string of Aldi stores in South East London, in the latest crackdown on rampant shoplifting.
Items with the mini-sensors added include even small kids’ tubes of the tangy oral gel.
Similar stickers, which activate a store’s alarms if taken without payment, have also been added to cans of Lynx deodorant.
A retail source said: “It’s not so much the value of the products but because they’re so small shoplifters will try and fit them in any pocket they can.
“They can just simply simply shuffle out.
“The branded toothpastes are up there with the most stolen products because they’re not perishable.
“It doesn’t matter if you hold onto it for a year or you use it straight away.”
Home Office figures released earlier this year show the shoplifting epidemic is at its worst for 20 years.
Around 1,200 cases of shop thefts are being reported every day — up by a third in a year.
In 2023 there were 430,104 shoplifting cases reported, up from 315,040 in 2022 and the highest since records began in 2003.
Thefts rose by 18 per cent to 125,563 and robberies increased 13 per cent to 81,094.
We previously told how some items in Tesco, like olive oil and chocolate packs, are now being protected with metal meshes.
The nets, which must be opened with a special key at the checkout, mean that even if pricey goods are nicked they cannot be accessed without specialist cutting tools.
And Tesco has also introduced smoke-belching sentries that activate if a store is broken into while closed.
Aldi was asked to comment.
