By Carol Tannenhauser
Four UWS Duane Reade pharmacies were robbed on Friday in a span of 13 hours — one twice, an NYPD detective told WSR. Police say all of the thefts were committed by a man who fit the same description: Black, roughly 40 years old, with a height of about 5′ 9″.
At 2:42 a.m., a man allegedly stole $155 worth of vitamins from the store at 609 Columbus Avenue (90th Street).
At 3:15 a.m., it was ten 12-packs of soda worth approximately $70 from the store at 2522 Broadway (94th-95th). “The Super Bowl,” the detective commented.
At 10:00 a.m., the heist involved $60 worth of toothpaste from the store at 700 Columbus Avenue (94th-95th).
At 10:56 a.m., it was $74 worth of soap from the store at 2683 Broadway (103rd).
At 4 p.m., a man allegedly stole from 700 Columbus again, this time taking wipes, ointments, and flowers. “Valentine’s Day,” said the detective.
No arrest was made.
WSR will be publishing an in-depth examination of this issue soon.
Sad to say, but has become pointless to report this, and/or even draw attention to it. This type of low level shoplifting has gone the way of J-walking and Double-parking your car.
At first is concerned me….then it annoyed me…..now I just accept it……If the plan by lawmakers was to normalize it, it’s worked in my case…..
Can’t wait for the next “outrage” by our local politicians about stores closing and dark stores opening. Perhaps they have the right idea….can’t really rob a store without a storefront…..
One quick point that I think needs to spread: I’m tired of hearing the word “shoplifting”. Shoplifting is when a teenager steals a candy bar or something from the makeup aisle. What has been going on across the country is theft, and sometimes, organized crime. The people who are targeting pharmacies take the goods and re-sell them on the street, or to “associates” who places them on tables on the sidewalk for sale at attractive prices. Then the pharmacies can’t stay open and EVERYONE WHO WORKS THERE LOSES THEIR JOB. Using the term “shoplifting” makes it seem this is a harmless crime. It’s not. It is destroying our society.
Right. This is far closer to organized crime where the thieves know exactly who to bring their goods to for resale.
And average people can help by not buying things like brand name health and beauty items that are priced “too good to be true.” On line or in person.
In all likelihood they’re stolen.
For once, the UES beats us for crime, see below from yesterday
https://www.uppereastsite.com/ninos-ristorante-robbed-gunpoint-upper-east-side-nyc/
The man is obviously stealing for resale. Possibly he is stealing to order. If the soda he stole was the standard 12 ounce cans, he stole over 90 pounds of soda. Did he bring a hand truck? I have a question. If a policeman just happened to come by as the man left the store with the stolen items, what would have happened?
Non violent misdemeanor
Catch and release
Appearance ticket for a future court date
And yet I’m sure most of you proudly voted for Alan Bragg because of the ‘D’ after his name. NYC only has one real District Attorney, Mike McMahon on Staten Island. He also has a ‘D’ after his name but he understands his job is not to enable criminals.
Have personally witnessed two recent shoplifting attempts, both at Duane Reade at 72nd and both at night. In both cases the person was caught by security and attempted to deny and escape. I heard more than I saw, one person dropped her stuff in a pile and left, the other I don’t know observe the ending of. Security seemed pretty on the ball and their goal seemed to be just have the person drop their stuff and leave.
I doubt the thefts themselves cost much, especially compared to the cost of maintaining security.
Are you saying based upon your cost benefit analysis that the stores should not employ security people.
That’s definitely not what I was trying to say. As I mentioned, the security people were pretty on top of things there.
this is why toothpaste and other sundries are under lock and key and you have to wait until security comes with a key to unlock your Crest.
That was fairly new. First detergent was locked up. Then toothpaste (maybe it was the pther way around). A few years ago they started locking up ice cream.
I know part of why the DR on 88th and Broadway closed was because of all the thefts. I spoke to one of the people at CVS on 86th and Amsterdam and he said theft was very common.
I agree with the poster who said it should be put on their record so that there is actual punishment when someone is charged x number of times.
I know many DAs are all about restorative justice. Which is great and all. But restorative does mean the person needs to be charged and restoration should occur.
Doing nothing just leads to the problem continuing.
Which is why I won’t shop in those stores any more. I’m not the thief and should not be treated as one. Better for the store to stop the thieves; they don’t want to, so they treat me and other honest customers like we are in the store to steal.
Amazon doesn’t treat me that way.
Has Bezos invited you on his floating country club yacht? Amazon has been allowed to destroy towns and city neighborhoods because you are too lazy or inconvenienced.
How about hire more local people, lock everything up and have counter service? Then you might have to invest in your neighborhood and talk to people
@Cato No, Bezos just unpays his workers and avoids taxes.
The classic case of government not working for their constituents.
No point to put yourself in danger as a civilian, security firm or NYPD because these low level crimes are no longer prosecuted.
True shame that this is becoming the new normal here in NYC as a whole and residents are starting to grow numb/indifferent. Truly sad.
Agreed. As I’ve said repeatedly, someone should not get 20 to life for one small shoplift. But they should get brought in for it and have it on their record, so that if they start doing it repeatedly, they will face increasing charges. This will get the criminals off the street and deter others from trying it.
I still struggle to understand why this idea is problematic to anyone.
Agree completely, and I would like anyone caught shoplifting to have to spend 8 hours cleaning the trash off the sidewalks of the NE, NW, SE and SW corners of Broadway/Amsterdam and 72, plus the trash strewn around Verdi triangle and the subway station. Seriously, why can’t we mandate a solution that would help the neighborhood?
A while back NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told banks to toughen up their security because they were just giving money to anyone who walked in and handed them a note, which led to a string of bank robberies. The banks got tougher and now there are fewer bank robberies. Maybe Duane Reade needs to be a little tougher. You can blame the police and the mayor all you want but they’re just letting people walk out with stuff.
Is ‘robbery’ the correct classification for these crimes?
Did the assailant show a weapon and force store personnel to hand over (variously) vitamins, toothpaste, soda, and soap? (Is it wrong to say he made a clean getaway?)
Or did he come in, take the merchandise off the shelf, and walk out without paying? To my understanding, this is not properly classified as ‘robbery’.
In any case, I would not want to be in the store when such an individual committed this crime. People like this who have a disregard for the law are likely to have a disregard for human life. For reference, the several-times arrested assailant in the Chinatown stabbing.
Instead, I will stay at home, and order my toothpaste, vitamins, soap and soda online, and watch as abjectly feckless politicians decry the deline of mom-and-pop mortar-and-brick stores.
Agreed, no evidence of a robbery in the description. Robbery is a crime against a person and a felony. Most shoplifting is a low-end misdemeanor if prosecuted at all. The last I heard, most people have shoplifted at some point in their youth.
Where’s Duane Reade’s responsibility to do something for themselves? You can’t just sit back and expect the City to secure your store from petty crime when you let people walk in and take anything they want. Put up a tiny bit of resistance and maybe people will stop robbing you.
Unfortunately, many of these chains have made it a corporate policy not to forcibly stop these thefts. The stolen merchandise is covered by their insurance policy. If the perpetrator, a store employee or an innocent bystander are hurt during an attempt to stop the theft, the cost of litigation can be staggering.
OK then let’s stop worrying about it. If it’s Duane Reade’s corporate policy to allow anyone to steal from them with impunity then let’s stop treating it like a problem. Maybe they can just put all the merchandise out on the sidewalk, it wouldn’t be much different from what they’re doing now.
People keep repeating that these stores let it happen because they’re covered by insurance. More than likely, that’s not the case. Does anyone saying this have any actual experience with claims/payouts because that sounds like a very uninformed and overstated theory. There are deductibles and standards that insurance companies require. They don’t exist to be an endless source for reimbursement for insureds who don’t mitigate the risk they insure.
Or maybe the security guard will get shot.
If this man were to be caught, would he likely be prosecuted under current guidelines?
Great question. I assume this should be an easy question for a lawyer/law enforcement representative here. Let’s assume no prior record.
Also, is this considered five separate incidences, each of a small amount, or one bigger one? Or four since it is four separate locations? Is it prosecuted differently (if at all)? I am not a lawyer but I have a feeling that it is separate small ones which would mean minimal sentencing.
WSR has done some great articles lately – a follow up like this would be very helpful. Thanks!
The lack of consequences emboldens these petty criminals to repeat. The stores really should toughen up and put up more of a fight. Otherwise it’s just going to get worse and end in closing.
All it takes is a bunch of prosecutions to send a message and this will subside. Once people realize that convictions carry far-reaching consequences for employment opportunities and participation in government aid programs, they’ll think twice about being a career shoplifter.
On Friday I also saw store clerks follow a guy who’d just grabbed some stuff near the front of the 72nd St. Duane Reade. It seemed like they were calling the police as he walked out (yelling at them, saying, “you don’t know me”.)
sorry but lol
when do people get to protect themselves and their property? or is that a flyover thing?
That’s a great point. Especially it seems as though you never get to protect yourself let alone your property! Makes no difference if it’s commercial or residential. Just echoing the truth in case anyone missed the glare.
If caught, let’s see what DA Bragg does about him since he didn’t use any weapons. Right now Bragg is back peddling on his previous policies and comments by saying how tough he will be on “gun crime.” However, destroying neighborhood stores by all these thieves, pushing people off the platforms in subways and punching elderly women on Broadway have all occurred without the use of a weapons. And none of these are one off crimes. I’m tired of hearing how crime was worse in the 1970s. Believe me, I lived here so I know. But that’s not an excuse for allowing the ongoing deterioration of our public safety and neighborhood conveniences.
Thing is……. If I tried stealing something, I’d get the book thrown at me. It’s diff rules for diff people. So it’s a double-whammy of ridiculousness.
The Duane Reade at 2864 Broadway (111th St) was robbed on Friday at 10:30 am. I don’t know the value of the merchandise being stolen, but the thief was violent with a store employee. (My next door neighbor saw the police interviewing the employee shortly afterward. NY Post account follows FYI: https://nypost.com/2022/02/13/nypd-seeks-alleged-shoplifter-who-punched-duane-reade-worker/.)
How is this possible???
Are these Duane Reades just being left unlocked???
So these are no longer “crimes of poverty”? Funny how things change when citizens get fed up.
I recently witnessed a white male around 50y/o filling two bags with cold remedies at the CVS on Broadway near 94th Street.
I alerted the guard at the door, pointed out the man and watched him walk out the door with a shrug by the guard. The guard told me that he didn’t see it happen , so it didn’t, and that the white thief did not look like a thief. Also that he would be fired if he left the store to chase someone.
I also told the manager and he shrugged it off too.
I suppose CVS and Duane Reed would prefer that we use Amazon for our purchases as their shelves are wiped out by theft.
OTC medications containing pseudoephedrine are used in making methamphetamine. As such cold/flu, decongestants, allergy and other such meds are commonly stolen by basket full from drug stores or anywhere else sold.
https://sunrisehouse.com/otc-abuse/cold-medicines/
Over years have seen many shoplifters walking out of Duane Reade, CVS, Walgreens and similar stores with one or two baskets full of OTC cold/flu, etc.. medications.
Here in New York, OTC meds containing Pseudoephedrine are locked up in the pharmacy and cannot be purchased without showing ID, so they’re not stealing OTC meds to make “meth”. At least not in New York.
I was at DR at 2069 Broadway yesterday around 4pm. A slight build man was loading Valentines stuffed animals and candy into a large black garbage bag. He walked out with an employee running behind him asking him to drop his bag. He waved a couple of empty water bottles saying his bag was only full of empty bottles. She gave up, he waltzed Ny the security guard.
Before Giuliani and Bloomberg became mayors of NYC the big box stores wouldn’t do business in NYC for fear of crime in NYC. Now the cycle has swung back
Good luck Manhattan with that attitude of accepting criminal behavior as the norm.
I actually love shopping at drugstores but now that it takes 15 minutes to get someone to unlock the soap, I started ordering it all on Fresh Direct. I don’t have hours to spend waiting for employees to unlock toiletries. The political tolerance for crime in this city is awful and baffling. What is with all the pandering to career criminals?! Don’t most people want them locked away before they commit more crimes? I honestly don’t get it.
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving company. Leave the poor guy alone
What a boneheaded and disgusting comment. I’d like to know what comparative value you add to this neighborhood that entitles you to rag on a business that so many benefit from.
Start voting differently. Wrote to city council and governor Hochul to get rid of Bragg and to reform bail reform. It’s great to write your opinions here but our “leaders” need to hear from their constituents.
There is a total breakdown of law and order in this town. All the bleeding heart liberals are to blame. You are the ones that voted these POS politicians in office.
JUST SAYING…………………………
I’m seeing a general cross street pattern here.
Duane Reade at 609 Columbus Ave 90th Street is always being robbed. The robbers run to the corner of 89th street by the bushes as it is dark. The landlord of Turin House allows this to happen and for years……
Seems to me the tactic and expense of locking everything up is not working. And is going to drive the Broadway and 94th Street Duane Reade store to closure. I will not shop there for regular household needs like toothpaste and shampoo because I have to wait for someone to respond to customer service bell and unlock in each aisle. The stores are understaffed … if they’re going to lock up everything then they need to hire more people so they can keep the registers staffed AND assist customers all over the store, and how about hiring 2 security guards for each store as well, not just one who “can’t leave” the store to pursue, and has to stay at the door so can’t roam around to keep an eye on various aisles? Sales must be plummeting because people aren’t able to shop efficiently. And I don’t want to shop in a store where lawless behavior is occurring either.
Have been in Rite Aide stores where there were two security guards on duty. It made no difference in terms of theft levels, nor customer service.
Obviously having two, four, six, ten or twenty security guards at a store does nothing if they don’t do anything. One or more they all stand around watching people steal and walking out front door.
As a small business owner – comments to “just order from Amazon” are incredibly distressing. If this city doesn’t get more tough on crime – and these are CRIMES, then you will be walking down streets with vacant stores. Amazon is already killing our businesses & to have a DA who is ready to lesseN these types of planned crimes will ruin our neighborhood. Unless you want nothing but banks and vacant stores to walk by – PLEASE WRITE YOUR CITY OFFICIALS THAT THIS NEEDS TO STOP.
Obviously people are in dire need and unfortunately have to steal.
Right. All of those $155 worth of vitamins due to the the guy’s child credit expiring…
Does everyone on the UWS have to be mugged, raped, pushed on to subway tracks and/or screamed at by a mental patient/junkie/drunk before they realize that defunding the police, no cash bail, “Raise the Age” and decriminalizing “victimless” crimes have been miserable, dangerous failures? It’s mind-boggling that there are still readers of the WSR who act as if the huge increase in crime is just an exaggeration and that things are not really that bad, (usually because THEY haven’t been a victim) so everyone just carry on and make the best of it.
First of all, none of these chain stores are closing due to crime. DR has been closing stores in the city methodically since Walgreens purchased them, we ll before the pandemic, as a policy of planned retrenchment, & Rite Aid & CVS are in the process of doing the same. Second, they’re all insured against theft, so their actual losses only result from the effect on the costs their insurance coverage, & with large companies like these, they’re in a position to negotiate those costs to a minimum. Third, why should anyone expect the employees of these stores to risk harm by confronting, much less attempting to prevent, someone intent on stealing. Would anyone commenting here take that risk?
Just as with everything else any retailer who routinely submits claims for loses to insurer will face at least two possible outcomes; policy will be cancelled, and or rates will go up.
DR, CVS, Rite Aid, etc… are not reporting every and each time merchandise is looted (that is what it amounts to really) out of their stores.
Places will eat loses to a certain extent, however make no mistake, if loses continue at some point it will factor into whether or not a location remains open.
We’re not talking about random shoplifting of one or two items here; rather people are clearing out entire shelves or cases of merchandise.
Oh come on everyone. These are merely “crimes of poverty.” Clearly you’re all racist and classist to object to such stealing. Everyone who commits such a crime has a reason. Set aside concerns for those struggling who don’t resort to stealing. That’s why this city elected people Bragg and Levine, right? What did you expect?
Rite Aid has closed three locations in past few weeks (50th and 8th, 22nd and 9th, and 80th and 2nd), so guess thieves needed to find new places.
Agree it’s virtually useless to report these sort of incidents. Duane Reade type stores won’t do anything remotely in way of preventing thefts, so people just feel free to walk in and help themselves.
Even on off chance an arrest is made, thief is out and back on street before NYPD officers finish writing their reports.
Many Morton Williams supermarkets now have paid detail unit (PDU) NYPD, and Gristedes/DAG will be soon as well.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10498885/Owner-NYC-grocery-store-chain-Gristedes-hires-security-guards-crack-shoplifting.html
Those of us who actually pay for merchandise at these stores will also foot bills for extra security. Places simply will pass along those extra costs in terms of price increases.
please wake up and get rid of catch and release . Please put people in jail. So , I guess it is ok to be a criminal.
Honestly, this is nothing. I have been in the 79th & Amsterdam Duane Reade numerous times where people just walk right out with bags of things and nothing is done. I was recently in the Duane Reade on 111th & Broadway and while in line we saw a man walk out with 2 hugs bags plus a large case of beer. We all stared in semi disbelief. I asked the cashier if what we think we saw just happened. He said that guys comes in all the time and does the same thing each time. I asked “then why are we all standing in line to pay if this guy can do that” to which he replied “go ahead and do it then, it’s less work for us.” We didn’t, but that is how they seem to see it these days.
I worry for the safety of the employees. I worry they would get hurt if they attempted to stop the thief. 24/7 stores are an opportunity for employment and should be protected with adequate security. Lock the door when security takes a break. Actually… during the pandemic store employees had a table at the front door. Client told them what was needed and they got it for them . Pay at the door. That could work!!
If you want to see the actual statistics of the crime in the neighborhood, go to your precinct’s next community council meeting..
It’s shoplifting, not “robbery.” Your headline is deceptive and inflammatory and you should know better . . . .
It’s not shoplifting, it’s larceny. But rather than focus on the problem, let’s argue about whether or not a headline is inflammatory. The fact of the matter is that these “thefts” are on the rise, the alleged perpetrators are become more and more brazen and it is only a matter of time before someone gets hurt.
Seems like you hit the nail on the head. Not even 24 hours have gone by and a new article here in the Rag about a Duane Reade employee being punched by a “shoplifter.”
Inflammatory to who? The thief?
Steven,
You’re right in that it’s not robbery because there was no force. But the issue is that this shoplifting is happening over and over again and no one seems to care. That’s the problem.
These articles are helpful because people will start to vote differently. Maybe Alvin Bragg will mess up this city so much that someone will step up and change this city.
I’ll bet you the guy that stole doesn’t have a clean record. I bet he’s been arrested multiple times. I bet he steals because he knows there’s almost 0 punishment. Why should he even get a job? What’s the point? It’s easier to steal. Nyc loves a good criminal!
Robert Jackson is your State Senator. When he’s not suing Fairway maybe he can help with the bail laws.