Shoplifter gives interview to NY Post
Shoplifters are so unconcerned with being arrested in the city that one of them stopped to chat with The Post after ransacking a Manhattan drug store — which is closing for good because of the out-of-control crime scourge.
The Rite Aid at the corner of 8th Avenue and 50th Street in Hell’s Kitchen will close Feb. 8 because of the rampant pilfering, said store sources who claim thieves have ripped off more than $200,000 worth of merchandise in the past two months alone.
A Post reporter followed one brazen thief at the store last week, watching him load four cases of beer into an oversize canvas bag in the back of the store and stride out without paying.
A guard with the word “SECURITY” emblazoned on the back of his shirt watched the thief as he walked out, but did nothing to stop him.
“Sometimes I feel bad for these guys in charge, you feel bad for the security guys,” the thief told The Post outside the doomed store.
“I know I do wrong,” he said. “If they tell me put it back, I put it back.”
But they almost never tell him to put anything back or stop him in any way, said the man, a native of Senegal who lives in the Bronx, where he is a union painter.
He said he was going to drink the beer with a friend who lives nearby. He said he’s been stealing from stores like Rite Aid for months and has never been arrested.