A store owner in Queens, within 13 blocks of 17 migrant shelters, said shoplifting has been rampant since migrants arrived and his store “won’t survive.”
Chris Ciacco, owner of Kaya’s Palette at 36-37 31st Street in Long Island City, told The Washington Post that his store is targeted by immigrant thieves up to six times a week.
“It’s not fair that these people can come into my store and steal whatever they want and nothing is done about it,” Ciacco said.
Ciacco’s general store is a one-stop shop for essentials like food, clothing, electronics and diapers at wholesale prices, which may be why it’s been targeted more often than other retailers in the area. Ciacco said the store is currently losing at least $3,000 a month.
“It’s impacting our operations and overhead costs,” he said, adding, “We’re not sure we can survive this.”
And if the situation continues, Ciacco said, “I’m going to terminate my lease. I’m barely making ends meet. I don’t know how I’m going to survive like this.”
The 4,500-square-foot store opened in 2021 and has had just three thefts in its first year, two of which were believed to be homeless people stealing a candy bar or two, Ciacco said.
But since the shelter opened over the past two years, “items from small to large” have been taken almost daily, Ciacco said, citing three examples in the past two weeks alone.
On Tuesday, a man opened a box of three bottles of Rogaine, pocketed the bottles, worth a total of $50, and threw the empty box on another shelf before running away. This week, another thief grabbed a bag of children’s underwear, stole half of it, and put the half-empty bag that was meant to be sold in bulk back on the shelf. Surveillance video from July 11 shows a man strolling into the store’s entrance around 11:30 a.m. and striding out less than a minute later with an entire palette of Gatorade.
“I called (the NYPD) six times and waited over eight hours, but not a single officer came to help,” Ciacco claimed several hours after the Gatorade theft.
“I tried to wave over 30 police cars down the street but not a single one stopped to help or even come to see what was going on,” he said in frustration.
Ciacco also claimed that he called the NYPD at least 12 times in the past year after spotting thieves in his store, but no officers came to investigate, and that investigators never took action on three theft reports he filed with the 114th Precinct.
When Ciacco reported the recent thefts in person at the station, the officer “allegedly said, ‘Well, you should hire a security guard,'” he said.
“So I explained to (the officer): I’m a one-man band trying to get by in this expensive city. I’m not the kind of business that can afford to hire people like that or I’d go out of business,” he said.
The thieves also forced Mr. Ciacco to change the way he did business.
For example, “I had to start by just putting the underwear loosely here,” he said, gesturing to a box full of men’s boxer shorts. They were being stolen at least once a month, so Mr. Ciacco started selling them for $1 apiece rather than in bulk.
“The only way to prevent your entire underwear from being stolen or lost is to keep it loose and in sight, and hope someone doesn’t steal one pair of underwear for a dollar,” he explained.
With the rampant thefts showing no sign of ending, Ciacco recently launched a “wall of shame” to post photos of thieves and document the items they have stolen.
“It just goes to show that, frankly, people just don’t care anymore,” store manager Bobby Valiente told The Post, showing us a baseball bat he keeps behind the register just in case, but fortunately has never had to use it.
As of Friday, the names of 12 perpetrators were inscribed on a wall open to the public.
The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
