By Gus Saltonstall
On January 20, a duo entered the CVS at the corner of West 70th Street and West End Avenue, and dumped $800 worth of shampoo and makeup from the shelves into a bag, police told West Side Rag. The pair then walked out of the store.
There have been no arrests.
On two other occasions this month, the same CVS was the victim of shoplifting incidents that saw a much less valuable collection of goods taken, police added.
On January 24, roughly 30 blocks farther uptown, a man walked into a T.J. Maxx at 808 Columbus Avenue, near West 98th Street, in the middle of the afternoon and took two bottles of perfume worth around $300, police said.
Three days later on the 27th, a man walked into the same T.J. Maxx and grabbed a pair of handbags valued at roughly $270, before fleeing the store, police said. In this case, there has been an arrest. Shortly after the 27th, a man named Angel Feliciano was arrested in connection with both incidents and charged with petit larceny, police said.
Shoplifting is a buzz word neighborhood subject. You see it discussed in Facebook groups, community forums, and over dinner tables.
What do the reported crime statistics point to in terms of shoplifting trends on the Upper West Side for the start of 2024?
Shoplifting offenses almost exclusively fall under petit larceny charges in New York, which happen when someone takes or withholds property from its owner that is primarily valued under $1,000. Importantly, not all petit larceny charges are shoplifting and include other types of burglaries, but remain the best statistic to look at for an insight into shoplifting.
In the 20th Precinct, which comprises West 59th to West 86th streets, and includes the CVS on West 70th Street that saw $800 worth of goods removed recently, petit larceny is noticeably on the rise this year.
For the week of January 22 to January 28, there have 28 incidents of petit larceny within the 27-block stretch of the 20th Precinct — that is up 115 percent from the 13 incidents that took place during the same week last year, according to NYPD data.
Taking in consideration January 1 to January 28, there have been 94 incidents of petit larceny within that section of the Upper West Side, a 38-percent increase from the 68 incidents that took place during the same time in the 20th Precinct in 2023.
From a wider vantage point, the increase of criminal offenses in the 20th Precinct remains at an uptick, but a much smaller one. Over the last two years, there has been a marginal 8-percent increase in petit larceny within the 20th Precinct, according to NYPD data.
The 24th Precinct stretches from West 87th to 110th streets and includes the T.J. Maxx that experienced shoplifting on two different occasions last week.
Does the same significant increase in petit larceny for the start of 2024 in the 20th Precinct exist in the 24th Precinct?
The answer is no.
From January 22 to 28, there have been 29 incidents of petit larceny in the 24th Precinct, a 29 percent decrease from the 41 incidents that took place during the same week last year, according to NYPD data. When looking at the year so far, petit larceny dropped by 42 percent in the precinct during the first 28 days of January in 2024, when compared to the same time frame in 2023.
In the last two years, petit larceny has decreased by 4.3 percent within the 24th Precinct, according to NYPD data.
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While the individual sums involved may not qualify as anything more than the legal category of petit larceny, it has a huge impact on our quality of life. As we walk our neighborhoods (if brave enough to run the gauntlet of motor bikes and scooters and motorcycles breaking the traffic laws), we see block after block of empty storefronts. What we need are commercial tenants in those spaces, but who in their right mind wants to take on the financial obligation of paying rent for a store where the merchandise can be stolen with impunity? And once it is stolen without consequence, it is obvious that that store will be seen as a suitable mark for repeat visits by the thieves. We need law enforcement on a visible and muscular basis, and if our city council members and our state representatives are so sympathetic to the perpetrators as to turn their backs on their obligations, then they need to be replaced. Otherwise, they will preside over the same sorry and disgraceful mess that exists in Portland, San Francisco and Seattle.
Our quality of life is also affected by the increased amount of time it takes to shop given that so.many products are under lock and key. One should not need a personal shopper at CVS. This encourages us to shop online, which (along with the thefts) contributes to store closures, which makes the neighborhood less safe. Lather, rinse, repeat.
New government officials willing to reduce the felony threshhold and hold people responsible.is necessary.
Agree with you and your idea of quality of life.
It starts with a small theft and leads to a larger one.
The law is crazy. Protecting the thieves, punishing the rightful owners.
Put some teeth back in the law.
Arrest, prosecute and put the guilty where they belong – in jail.
Most of those empty storefronts belonged to tenants who could no longer afford the ever-rising rents charged by their landlords. Some of them were newcomers, but many were long-time businesses — the kind that serve as anchors for a neighborhood.
When the stores were occupied and business was thriving, the neighborhoods were safer and thievery less rampant.
Just a quick reply the Upper East Side is thriving. Stores open on the avenues and side streets as well. They can go out at night after 8pm…imagine that-without being threatened on 72nd and Amsterdam. Etc. Its been years since anything useful or stylish or elegant opened here. Does anyone remember when we could take a walk and just “window-shop”…. and feel good about living here? Long gone.. Instead, shelter after shelter opens and street vendors with junk take up our sidewalks next to sleeping homeless. That’s how the UWS is now defined. Along with drug stores empty shelves and filthy streets like Broadway from 73rd on up.
Maybe a common thread here is the difficulty of stores’ adapting to the online world. Customers don’t walk in because they can get stuff online; thieves walk and out with merchandise that they sell online. Who knows how often a former customer buys online an item stolen from the very store that s/he no longer enters?
I don’t know the solution short-term except to ramp up penalties and enforcement. Looters should not be dumping merchandise into bags and walking out with impunity.
So your saying wholesale theft. Not a factor?
Many small businesses that thrived in the past are today obsolete as they can’t compete with online shopping and bigger stores.
Furthermore, the rise in the minimum wage rate isn’t exactly helping small businesses.
And yes, shoplifting is a hindrance to small businesses choosing to open in this neighborhood.
Not every problem can be blamed on allegedly greedy landlords.
I’m a small business owner and this is all true and accurate. It is not always “greedy landlords”. The current city and state administrations rules and laws have only hurt small businesses. Yes, online shopping is definitely a factor which is why we need MORE support from city and state governments, not more challenges, fines and taxes every year. And quality of life also affects us.
concerned business owner,
The City has done everything to help restaurants, most notably the free restaurant street shacks.
In the meantime, the City has done zero for small retail, shops and local business facing high rent, shoplifting, ecommerce etc
Incredibly the City is now providing more help and unfair advantage to ecommerce with the City’s plan to develop ecommerce loading hubs.
And all of the above has a snowball effect. Online shopping, shoplifting or looting as someone pointed out here, and raising min wages cause businesses leaving. Greedy landlords may still be a factor, but many of the buildings are coops and condos that now do not have commercial tenants. Without commercial rent, they are forced to raise maintenance or implement assessments making life on the UWS even less affordable for residents. Looks like the cost is going up while the quality of life is going down. Up the Down Stairs.
Here we go with the “don’t blame the landlords” lobby.
Despite countless examples of small businesses- stores, restaurants, you name it- citing huge rent increases as the reason they are forced to shutter.
This has been an issue for years and years.
There is no logical reason why commercial rents should be as high as they are given the countless empty storefronts in our neighborhood and others.
In the last few decades or more we have seen individual landlords replaced by corporations who because there is no personal relationship to the neighborhood and the property, think nothing of ejecting long time tenants and sitting on a chain or bank.
It has really taken a toll on our neighborhoods.
Yes, online ordering factors in here, but I believe most people still want diverse, eclectic, and useful retail in their neighborhoods.
Many cities, large and small are able to achieve this. Why not here, “the greatest city in the world?”
Even the developer that owns Rockefeller Center has offered low rents in an effort to make it’s retail offering more appealing to New Yorkers. Now they have the McNally Jackson flagship bookstore, Rough Trade Records moved from Williamsburg to be there! There are many other smaller stores there now. And cool restaurants. It works if there are incentives.
No landlord – whether a small mom & pop operation or a large corporation- magically comes out financially ahead by keeping their space empty.
All landlords have enormous NYC real estate taxes they have to cover with their rent rolls and they don’t want lock in a long term tenant at a rock bottom price simply to fill empty space.
And Rockefeller Center is not filling their space out of altruism. Their space is being filled because they reached deals with their tenants that are financially advantageous for both sides.
The reason rents are high on retail stores is the city has raised Real Estate taxes enormously and now takes 30 percent of buildings income. Every year NY raises real estate taxes anywhere from 5 to 20% depending on the building classification.
I own a small bldg and restaurant in NYC and between the Real Estate taxes and insurance, repairs there is no profit in owning a small bldg anymore in NYC. The regulations, fees, fines, permits have made operating a small retail business or restaurant extremely challenging in NYC.
Instead of NYC doing anything to help they just add more inspections, more taxes etc. No wonder business is fleeing to FL an TX. The rising real estate taxes are leading to a plethora of empty storefronts and unsustainable business conditions.
This is looting. Shoplifting – sneaking an item into one’s pocket or bag & trying to steal it.
What is going on now is by the bookMASSIVE looting, with looters facing no consequences.
But sadly we live in the era of euphemisms.
Is it a trend????
It’s Standard Operating Procedure
A result of lunatic bail laws and refusal to prosecute by the District Attorney Office. Turnstile Justice!
I know online stores have a bad rep for pushing physical shops out of business, but I’ve taken to buying things like toothpaste and deodorant on amazon because there I don’t have to wait for an associate to come unlock it for me.
I have stopped buying sundries on Amazon that you could find in a drugstore for fear it is a resale of something that was shoplifted/stolen. Unless you are ordering from a Target or a store website you have no assurance you are not rebuying a stolen item. Amazon is full of independent sellers. It’s not really Amazon who is selling the stuff.
Amazon clearly tells you who is selling and who is shipping the item. When it says Amazon is the seller, it’s not stolen merchandise. How do you know where a store’s products came from?
All of those items were likely listed on Amazon Marketplace or eBay within hours.
Oh great — is everything going to be under lock and key in the drugstore now? As it is, you have to get a clerk to unlock the case just to purchase deodorant or shampoo.
If locking it up keeps the store on business, so be it. We lost Bed, Bath and Beyond as people blatantly walked out with stolen goods. My husband spoke up to one person and said “put it back” and the person dropped the stuff in the floor and ran out. We need to YELL THIEF if we see something. We need to keep our businesses in business.
Yelling thief….makes me nostalgic for the Don’t Honk signs we used to put up. A lot of good they did.
Yep. And it is soaring burglary that drives soaring prices.
We need penalties that are more severe, more swift, and more certain to be applied.
Get rid of Bragg and Adams and get politicians who aren’t afraid of enacting stricter laws with real penalties.
And Hoylman-Sigal.
We keep complaining, but when the time comes to vote, where’s everyone?
A trend?! This has been happening for 10+ years, and every time my neighbors or I posted that we’d witnessed shoplifting, looting, and armed robbery, we were called ‘Chicken Little,’ and told that, *things like this don’t happen in our neighborhood*! Try to imagine what it’s like to find yourself trapped in a DR while a man with a gun blocks the door as his buddies fill up backpacks with merchandise. You can’t turn a blind eye when it’s happening to someone else and then complain that you’re inconvenienced when it finally hits home!
The shoplifting has to stop or we will have no more businesses in the city. The punishment must be swift and severe to deter crimes. More cameras, more cops, more arrests.
Shoplifting is the heartbeat of the Big Apple. We must not discriminate on the basis of being able to afford to pay or not.
This is the inevitable result of the decarceration movement. Start putting these people into prison. The number of shoplifting incidents will go down with weeks.
Progressives making NYC progressively worse
Victimless crimes! May they continue until these stores are devoid of inventory.
That’s not really how economics works. There certainly will be victims when the stores have to close and the employees are out of work
Stores are facing daunting problems with shoplifting, high rent, ecommerce , more complex City rules/fines – and also street vendors.
Small retail is really suffering.
Although appreciative of Council Member Brewer’s past work seeking commercial rent protection, am really concerned by her current focus on enabling street vendors throughout NYC.
And really disturbing she wants to enable street vendors on the Brooklyn Bridge.
https://nypost.com/2023/12/16/metro/nyc-councilwoman-seeks-to-block-plan-to-boot-brooklyn-bridge-vendors/
“When looking at the year so far, petit larceny dropped by 42 percent in the precinct during the first 28 days of January in 2024, when compared to the same time frame in 2023.”
No one cares because the numbers aren’t real… the data shows only what is reported and documented….not what is happening in reality…
Keep voting for the progressives in city council, state legislature, governor, mayor, etc. and you will keep getting more of the same…
I can see the statue of liberty on a beach somewhere in this city’s future…..
The Law need an UPDATE!!! The upper west has lost many big stores like TJMax because of constant theft of petty thieves! With them go precious jobs and convenience for the middle class shoppers! STOP THE MADNESS
And the city council, including Gale Brewer, just voted to overturn the Mayor’s veto of the “How Many Stops” Act, which will add bureaucratic red tape to the police officer. More paperwork,, no doubt leading to even more crime.
This trend is the result of two things. First, a general lawlessness regarding shoplifting, particularly at “big box” stores like CVS, Duane Reade, Walgreens, Target et al;) and the relatively new policy of these stores (and Starbucks, another major target for shoplifting) that their security personnel may not physically engage with shoplifters (even when they have license to do so). So shoplifters know that they will not be stopped by anyone once they take things.
But most stores have discontinued having security personnel who CAN engage with shoplifters. Maybe it is time to bring them back. Or perhaps a button or other way of automatically having the doors close so that shoplifters cannot leave the store, as management calls 911.
There have to be other creative ways to diminish this plague.
You mean lock everyone inside? Sounds real safe.
The filth along Broadway above 72nd Street is indeed correct. I used to love this neighborhood. Now it’s infested with crime, fewer quality stores (if any at all), and homeless/and or shelter people wandering the neighborhood or standing around asking for money. And like the migrant men who recently attacked the police in Times Square, the shoplifters get away with their crime . . .
I almost cannot wait until another shelter to arrive which will ruin the last relatively nice block on 60th and 10th. The project nearby had no issues for years until pot became legal with the defund the police stuff and what nots going on. Not technically the “UWS” but there’s really no escape anywhere on the west side now, isn’t it?
I’m grateful for vociferous, constructive anger defending our home, our ‘hood. Massive shoplifting saps our strength when it closes big stores. I look forward to such vociferous constructive defense as the mayor’s City of Yes for Economic Opportunity unfolds. It was proposed with no public input but has a forthcoming period for public review.