With robberies up 11 percent this year in the town and the holiday sales season going full force Friday, the Town Council agreed last week to implement Mayor Paul Vrooman's new program called Stoplifting.

The idea is that retailers will commit to pressing charges and showing up in court to prosecute thieves.

Sharon [last name withheld], retail theft: three years of probation, credit for April 26 to May 8, $200 fine, no contact with Value City of Chambersburg, complete "stoplifting" program.

A counselling program that helped reform many Winnipeg shoplifters will fold Dec. 31 unless the province provides funding, the program organizer has warned. STOPlifting, a two-year-old Elizabeth Fry Society program, runs out of money this month and seven months of funding requests to the Justice Department have gone unheeded, society executive director Brenda Elliot said.