During a robbery
By far the majority of robberies in Denmark do not involve weapons. A robber can be under severe physical strain and will probably act irrationally. You should therefore focus on giving the robber what he or she wants, and have the robber leave the shop as quickly as possible.
- Keep calm, as best you can.
- Don’t yell and don’t resist.
- Do exactly what the robber says.
- Observe the robber: What does he look like? Any special features? What escape route did he take?
- Activate the panic alarm, if the shop has one, and if you can activate it without putting anyone at risk.
If you are threatened to surrender money located in the back room, if the robber locks you up or ties your hands, you should still focus on doing exactly what the robber says and keep as calm as possible. Fortunately, such situations are rare.
After a robber
The robber will be intent on not being identified or stopped. Therefore, you should not attempt to prevent him from escaping, or obstruct him in any other way, nor should you go in pursuit. Your procedure after a robbery could include the following actions:
- Activate the alarm and/or notify the police. Leave everything just as it was when the robber left. Do not tidy up and do not touch anything related to the robbery until the police have inspected the shop.
- Provide first aid, including psychological first aid, if relevant.
- Do not go back to serving customers. If there’s been a robbery, the shop must close immediately! Lock up the shop and only let in the police or paramedics. There should be one person to greet them.
- Contact your boss if he or she is not present.
- If there were witnesses to the robbery, ask them to stay until the police arrive, or take down their name and phone number.
- Secure any relevant footage from security cameras, etc.
- Complete the robber description form before discussing the robber’s appearance with the others.
Free help for victims and witnesses
Offerrådgivningen – Someone to talk to! helps victims, witnesses and relatives who have experienced serious and traumatic events such as crime, car accidents and other accidents. Offerrådgivningen has local branches throughout Denmark.
If you’ve experienced violence, robbery or some other traumatic event at a shop, you can contact Offerrådgivningen – Someone to talk to! for help and advice. Both employees and managers are eligible for free help and advice.
You can contact Offerrådgivningen via phone or email. A counsellor will answer your call. You can tell the counsellor what happened. The counsellor will counsel you and give you advice, but most importantly the counsellor will take time to listen to you.
All counsellors have a duty of confidentiality and you can remain anonymous. You can talk to the counsellor over the phone or you can agree to meet with the counsellor. Together, you and the counsellor will find out how best to help you.
- Read more and find contact details at the Offerrådgivningen website (opens in new window – in Danish only).
Report to Crimestat
You should consider registering your shop with Crimestat.
Crimestat is a database with descriptions of shop thefts, burglaries and robberies. The database is a collaboration between the Danish Chamber of Commerce and the retail sector.
The idea behind the database is for shops to report data, for example on a robbery, immediately after it has taken place. Other shops will then be able to see the details about the robbery in an anonymised form. The information reported to Crimestat gives an overview of the current situation and is therefore a tool to help prevent robberies, etc.
About 7,700 shops report to Crimestat, and Crimestat works together with the police on crime prevention in the retail sector.
- See more and register on Crimestat.dk (opens in new window).