THE STATE LEGISLATURE HAS MADE NY A THIEF'S PARADISE

Big Apple shoplifting skyrockets 81% compared to last year

 

By Craig McCarthy and Gabrielle Fonrouge

 

New York Post

April 6, 2022

 

 

Theft of anything under $1,000 is considered a misdemeanor, which has led to crooks cleaning out stores

 

Merchandise at New York’s stores has been quite the steal.

Shoplifting complaints in the Big Apple have skyrocketed 81% this year compared to last as the city continues to reel from a crime surge that’s eclipsing pre-pandemic levels, data released Wednesday show. 

So far this year, there’s been more than 5,000 petty larceny, grand larceny and robbery complaints stemming from shoplifting incidents citywide, Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri said during a Wednesday crime statistics briefing. 

“We’ve seen an increase of 81% of shoplifting complaints that includes petty larceny, grand larcenies and robberies where individuals go in and continue to steal merchandise, and then are confronted by a worker and then they get assaulted,” LiPetri said.

That’s up from about 2,100 shoplifting complaints recorded during the same period last year when many New Yorkers were at home avoiding the post-holiday, winter COVID-19 surge. 

A video posted to TikTok shows a parade of people casually shoplifting from what appears to be a Rite Aid in Manhattan

 

One man could be seen in the video with a garbage bag full of items slung over his shoulder

 

Another smiled and waved at the security guard who filmed the scene as he passed by

 

Of those arrested for shoplifting related offenses over the past two years, 2,000 are recidivists who’ve been cuffed three or more times and 379 have been taken into custody three or more times for shoplifting crimes specifically, LiPetri said. 

Drug stores across the Big Apple have been reeling from a recent rash of thefts — some of which have turned violent.

 

A man shoplifting steaks from a Trader Joe’s store in Manhattan on February 8, 2022

 

A shoplifter brutally attacked a female store employee who confronted him for pilfering products from a freezer at a Morningside Heights Duane Reade in February, cops said previously. 

The man allegedly punched the 21-year-old worker in the face, grabbed her hair and threw her to the floor, police said. 

In late January, a man and woman snatched four packs of paper towels from the shelves at a Duane Reade on Park Avenue South near East 28th Street around 9:10 a.m., cops said. 

When a 43-year-old worker confronted the duo, the male suspect pulled a box cutter on her and snarled, “If you keep recording, I will hurt you,” police said.

The most bizarre theft came when a man dubbed the “Hamburglar” was spotted calmly walking out with an armful of roughly a dozen steaks from a Manhattan Trader Joe’s in February