GPS trackers are being fitted to grocery items including sausages, steak, and beef in the latest bid from supermarkets to stop the shoplifting epidemic plaguing Britain's high streets.The trackers allow the location of the products to be followed once they leave the store and have been spotted at a number of Co-op stores across the UK. In another attempt to deter shoplifters, the items are also placed in locked plastic boxes. Co-op Cumberland sausages, which cost £3.90, have been pictured in the boxes with a label reading 'protected by GPS'.Meanwhile, other Co-op meat products, including £7 British sirloin steaks and Angus beef roasting joints, costing £20.90, were also locked in the GPS-tagged boxes at a store in Old Street in central London.It's the latest effort in a long list of security measures being brought in by supermarkets to deter shoplifters, as new figures revealed Britain's shoplifting epidemic has hit a record high of more than 500,000 cases in a year.Police recorded 530,000 offences in England and Wales last year - a 48 per cent increase on pre-pandemic levels.And retailers estimate the true figure is far higher, as shoplifting has become increasingly organised on 'Britain's broken high streets'. Co-op Cumberland sausages, which cost £3.90, have been pictured in the boxes with a label reading 'protected by GPS'