A video doing the rounds on social media, presented as a fresh attack on a Lidl worker by a group of teenagers, is not new at all. London Streets has traced the footage back to an incident on **9 June this year** — nearly four months ago — at the Lidl on Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park.
The clip, shared this week with claims about who the group were and what had just happened, shows a confrontation spilling out of the store entrance onto the street. But the Metropolitan Police dealt with the incident in June, and their account of that night looks very different from the story now attached to the video.
## What actually happened in June
Police were called at around 9.12pm on Tuesday, 9 June to the supermarket on Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park, following reports of an altercation.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said at the time: “It was reported that two men, a staff member in his 30s and a security guard in his 20s, were assaulted by a group of people who were believed to be shoplifting.”
“Officers attended alongside the London Ambulance Service and treated the two employees at the scene for minor injuries.”
The suspects had left before officers arrived. Police said enquiries were ongoing to identify those responsible, and no arrests had been made at that stage. Anyone with information was asked to contact police on 101, quoting CAD 8067/09JUN, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
There is nothing in the police account about the nationalities or immigration status of anyone involved — that detail appears to have been added later by people sharing the video, not by anyone who investigated the incident.
## The same footage keeps coming back
This is not the first time the June footage has resurfaced. The same clip has been recirculated on social media more than once since the summer, each time presented as if it had just happened. Each reappearance picks up fresh outrage from people who assume they are watching breaking news.
Old footage given a new caption is one of the most common forms of misinformation online. A video stripped of its date can travel much further than the original reporting ever did — and by the time someone checks, thousands of people have already shared it as fact.
There are simple checks anyone can run before sharing. A reverse image search on a still from the video will often surface the original reporting. Searching the location plus a keyword like “Lidl” or “Finsbury Park” usually turns up whether police or local news covered it at the time. And posts that make sweeping claims about who people are — their nationality, their immigration status — without any named source should always be treated with scepticism.
## The wider picture on retail crime
The June incident landed amid growing concern about shoplifting and assaults on shop workers in the capital. Reported figures have shown shoplifting in London trebling over five years, and the issue has been serious enough for [the London Assembly to hold hearings on retail crime](https://londonstreets.uk/london-assembly-shoplifting-retail-crime-hearing/).
Retail workers’ unions have repeatedly warned that staff face abuse and violence for challenging thieves, and ministers have faced pressure to give assaults on shop workers the same seriousness as attacks on other frontline staff. The Finsbury Park case — two employees hurt badly enough to need paramedics at the scene — is exactly the kind of incident behind those warnings.
But none of that makes it acceptable to recycle the footage months later with invented details attached. The two staff members assaulted in June deserved accurate reporting at the time; they deserve it now as well.
## What to do if you shared it
If the video landed in your feed presented as a new attack, it is worth knowing the backstory before passing it on. The police investigation reference from June — CAD 8067/09JUN — remains the route for anyone with genuine information about the original incident.
And the broader lesson stands: on social media, the most shareable version of a story is rarely the most accurate one. Check the date before you share.
