By Gus Saltonstall
A group of four people recently helped themselves to over $4,000 in sunglasses from an Upper West Side business, police said on Tuesday.
Around 5:15 p.m. on Monday, four people walked into a LensCrafters at 2770 Broadway, near the corner of West 107th Street, and snatched $4,100 worth of sunglasses without paying, before fleeing the business in an unknown direction, police said.
The same group of four are wanted for a similar incident that happened on March 1 within a LensCrafters in Lower Manhattan at 60 Broad Street, where seven people walked into the business and grabbed $1,200 worth of sunglasses without paying, police said.
Retail theft was a focus of Tuesday night’s Community Board 7 meeting, where Lieutenant Anthony Delia of the 24th Precinct, referred specifically to LensCrafters in his remarks. “LensCrafters for us is a big deal because it’s very easily accessible to get into LensCrafters the way it’s set up,” he said. “They have their high-end glasses right by the front door. Perps come in, snatch the glasses, they run out.”
He added that the local precincts have worked with the store to get quick notifications and descriptions when thefts occur.
Here are photos of the four people wanted in connection to the Upper West Side incident.
Anyone with information in regard to these incidents is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
West Side Rag reporter Dan Katzive contributed to this report.
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No excuse for this kind of behavior – Lock ’em up –
Agree.
1-3 years.
It’s long past time to start treating this as organized crime. Which is exactly what it is.
There are fences, resellers, and gangs shoplifting to fill the orders of the fences and resellers. It’s organized crime.
But that being said the use of retail pricing way overstates the cost to businesses. The loss is a fraction of the number given here.
These kids don’t look very organized to me.
By being soft on this type of crime, NYC just encourages more of it.
I agree that if the risk for committing the crime is minimal, there’s no reason for the criminals to stop. This is how they earn their living.
If you are going to report the retail cost, please also list the manufacturing cost, which in eyeglasses is a small fraction.
Manufacturing cost is not the test of the crime. It’s the price customers have to pay. That’s what thieves count on to resell the loot.
THERE IS MORE THAN THE MANUFACTURING COST IN ANY PRODUCT. THERE IS THE COST OF ADVERTISING, THE STORE RENTAL AND FURNISHINGS, THE COST OF THE HELP IN THE STORE.
Lenscrafters is owned by Luxottica, the biggest brand you never heard of. They own the license to Armani, Bulgari, RayBan, and Burberry eyewear, among others. Their stuff used to be exclusively manufactured in Italy until the mid-00s, when they shifted production to PRC. They pay top dollar for the licenses, but they brag about what unit costs – the markup is in thousands of percent. What you paid $250 for cost about $0.25 to produce even after factoring in license costs.*
*source: I used to work for one of their service providers. The old geezer that ran the company retired and passed it to a variety of extremely shifty children (from both sides of the blanket).
Transportation from the manufacturer, too.
And Loss is accounted for when opening a retail business.
This type of behavior inevitable leads to LensCrafters closing branches and laying off hard working New Yorkers.
Where is the concern for those folks??
The silence from NYC progressives is deafening.
It is ridiculous and absurd with comments such as these to continually characterize every crime story as a battle between conservatives and progressives. It isn’t. Nobody is in favor of crime and nobody wants malefactors to go unpunished. No political party or political philosophy has a secret formula for minimizing crime, a very complicated problem that defies easy solutions.
Well, for one “Bail reform.” Not holding people for bail is the problem. They repeat the crimes when they are back out on the street, which is immediately. Rescind bail reform now and watch the crime rate plummet.
We see you aren’t letting facts get in the way of your statements. Bail reform has not had a major impact on crime rates.
The issue is that progressives don’t even acknowledge that crime is bad and that violent criminals are bad people.
Have local progressives put out any statements condemning recent criminal activity? They lack any conviction on the matter.
So whether or not there is a “secret formula” to reduce crime is irrelevant, as NYC progressives don’t even think such a formula is needed.
So completely and fundamentally untrue as to be a totally nonsensical strawman. No reasonable person wants any criminal, let alone a violent criminal, to go unpunished. It’s absurd to characterize this as a matter of political persuasion.
As for public condemnations, I guess you missed the Governor’s press conference and the deployment of NYS police and the National Guard???
What does this have to do with “progressives,” and, if it does have anything to do with them, what are they supposed to do? This is a criminal matter. It involves police, not civilians.
No. It involves the legislation that allows these perps back out on the street immediately and to continue to rip off business after business. The politicians who passed “bail reform” are the problem. The police do their job. The District Attorneys have to prosecute (also a problem when they downgrade crimes). But the LAWS that are passed are the ultimate issue. If we do not have strong laws that scream “Punishment!” there is no solution.
No law was passed to reduce punishment.
You clearly do not understand what bail reform is, why it was passed in recent years in many jurisdictions around the country, or the inconsequential impact it has had on crime rates.
The vibe is really different north of 96th Street…
Hold and throw these people in jail or they will just do it again if released.
Brings me to tears seeing what is being done to this beautiful energetic city in the name of equity over the past 10 years. When will the public understand that there is no incentive for businesses to open up here, when other states like Texas and Florida offer businesses peace of mind with very low crime and lower costs.
Texas and Florida don’t have “very low crime”. Compared to NYC crime index of 73, Texas is 108 and Florida 106. They have a higher murder and rape index as well.
https://www.nextburb.com/us/compare/new-york-ny-city-vs-florida-state-vs-texas-state/crime-rates/
Where did you get the idea that the crime rate in Florida and Texas was significantly lower what we experience here in NYC.? Just Googled it and Florida and NYC are similar, whereas Texas has a higher crime rate than NYC
When found they should serve time working at minimum wage to pay back to cost of stolen goods x 10. A biblical sentence even Republicans should approve of.
Last time I was there with my kids, before this incident, the door was locked and I was only let in by a security guard after I said what we needed…guess that doesn’t always happen 🤷🏻♀️