INCONTINENCE pants are being stolen so often from a Scottish Tesco that bosses have fitted them with heavy-duty theft alarms.
The large, black alarms have been attached to £12 packets of “super large” Tena pants in a Leith store.
From now on, incontinent thieves attempting to flee the Duke Street shop will set off the store’s alarm – and the siren attached to the product.
The sophisticated alarms – billed as a deterrent to “career criminals” – would normally only be fitted to high-value items such as bottles of spirits, Champagne, electronics and DVDs.
But the firm admits it has been forced to alarm its incontinence pants because of the high number of packets that were being stolen.
The same store already employs a full-time security officer to stand near to the entrance as a deterrent to shoplifters.
One shopper, who did not wish to be named, said: “It could be potentially embarrassing for someone to ask for a store assistant to take the tag off an item such as this.
“Why anyone would try to steal Tena pants, I don’t know. It’s taking security too far.”
The ‘Alpha 2 alarm’ has cables which are wrapped around the product.
The Alpha website states: “When you use the Alpha 2 alarm products, you reduce the likelihood of even a career criminal attempting to defeat these tags.
“The ones who still make their attempts will discover that they set off the alarm in the store while tampering with the device.
“Not only will it potentially stop the theft in progress, but it will also help you identify potential thieves in your store as their anonymity has been blown.”
A spokesman for Tesco said: “Our store managers take appropriate security measures based on the needs of the store.
“In this case, it’s been necessary to attach security tags to protect some high value products from shoplifting.”
It is not the first time unusual items have been security tagged.
Last year, another Tesco in Leith began attaching security stickers to blocks of £2.75 cheese.
The metal strips have to be removed at checkout or will set off alarms as a customer tries to leave the shop.
