Balcatta, Perth security guard clashes with suspected Coles thief

The increasing struggle to make ends meet due to the rising cost of living has apparently resulted in a fierce confrontation between a mall security guard and a suspected thief.

Extraordinary footage has emerged of an expletive-filled altercation between a guard in Perth and a shopper who appeared to be trying to leave with a trolley full of essential items.

The footage, shot in the city’s mainly middle-class northern suburb of Balcatta, shows the security guard and the woman engaged in a fierce tug-of-war for a Coles shopping cart full of groceries, including soft drinks.

The fight threatens to spill over into oncoming traffic on a nearby busy street.

The woman insists that she paid and showed the purchases to a saleswoman.

“I taught his partner, I paid for it,” he says.

But an adamant security guard doesn’t believe her story and demands that she return to the mall with him.

‘Stop doing that, let’s go back there,’ he said.

She grabs hold of the cart to keep the woman from going anywhere as the argument escalates.

“I showed it to the lady,” he argues.

He replied: ‘No, no, no!’

It is currently unclear how the incident ended.

A spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the incident was not reported to the Western Australian Police.

The Reserve Bank posted its tenth consecutive interest rate hike on Tuesday after inflation recently rose to its highest level in Australia in 32 years at 7.8 percent.

It comes as other Perth shop owners raised concerns about the rise in shoplifting.

The manager of an IGA supermarket says his store is losing thousands of dollars every week as thieves hide his stolen stash in bags and clothing.

“They are really cheeky,” he told Seven News.

“Living costs and pressures are not helping the problem.”

Charities also say rising costs are pushing families to the brink.

The tug of war over an overflowing shopping cart threatened to spill onto a busy street