I'm not quite sure why I am so fond of this story, but somehow a community refusing to sell eggs and ketchup to teenagers in order to lower crime strikes me as pretty funny. Here you have to regulate handguns. There you just have to stop selling eggs and condiments, and in no time at all you see an improvement in the crime rate.
You gotta love those British.
Supermarkets have banned sales of eggs and tomato ketchup to young people in a bid to cut anti-social behaviour.
About a dozen residents in the Charles Close area of Caister-on-Sea, near Great Yarmouth, have reported tomato sauce being squirted at cars and homes. Norfolk Police asked supermarkets in the town to challenge youths trying to buy sauces in squirty bottles or eggs. Sgt. Andy Brown said no more complaints had been received in the past two weeks since the agreement came into force.
'A bit daft'
Sgt. Brown said squirting ketchup was not a criminal act but it could be possible to bring charges of criminal damage if paintwork was damaged on homes or vehicles. He said: "We had about a dozen complaints from residents, some of them elderly, about people squirting ketchup over doors, windows and vehicles."
"One of the ways we have looked at tackling that is to speak to local schools and businesses to get them to agree to not sell tomato ketchup to young people. I know it sounds a bit daft, but it has made a difference because we have had no more reported incidents since the supermarkets came on board with this."
Martin Bailie, from Lidl supermarkets, said staff from its Caister branch became aware of a problem before police asked them for help. "Our staff were challenging youngsters who were trying to bulk buy these things. … It is anti-social behaviour and it was getting out of hand."
"It wasn't that we haven't been selling eggs and ketchup to youths, but have been careful about who we have sold them to, and we are glad it has been making a difference."
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