Christmas shoppers are being urged to be extra vigilant on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
€400,000 worth of goods was stolen from shoppers' cars in Ireland last year, while there are over 100 thefts from customers in store every month.
Gardai say thefts are most common between 1 and 6 PM in the evening with the number of incidents rising in December
Christmas shoppers are being urged not to leave receipts in the same bag as the item you've bought and remain vigilant for thieves operating in retail car parks.
An Garda Síochána has produced safety information packs for both customers and retailers,which are available to download from the Garda website.
Kim Buckley reports:
