NYC Gets Worse… Shoplifters Raid Macy’s

and now to a major retail theft bust in

Manhattan the da says the thieves stole

more than a million dollars worth of

items hitting stores like Macy's of

Walgreens at CVS and then flipping those

products for cash so this million dooll

bust happened right here in Midtown

Manhattan at a business that was

stealing from its neighbors and although

a number of chain stores have already

abandoned this neighborhood completely

experts say more store closures are on

the way exclusive surveillance video

shows masked men rush in wearing

construction vests and Safari hats and

ransack the place we've all seen the

videos flash mobs and smash and grabs

targeting popular chain stores now

police say some of those thefts could be

fueling organized retail crime there

were so many stolen items seized in a

Midtown store that it took 450 boxes to

cart them away designer purses

electronic devices medications Lego sets

shoplifting on a large scale has become

a national crisis costing retailers over

$112 billion in losses last year so

we're talking about eight New Yorkers

arrested in just a week's span so what

is going on here more police presence in

the neighborhood would actually help but

you don't see them driving around

there's no one they come here they steal

they steal they steal they heard in the

neighbor the New York da said today that

more than $200,000 from that million

dooll bus for goods that were stolen

from Macy's

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alone so people people are starting to

notice that New York city has an empty

storefront problem and it's growing but

nobody's talking about desolate shopping

wastelands like what you see right here

these are the new normal all over town

because stores are leaving and they're

not coming back and what's crazy is New

York's leaders have no idea why this is

happening even though all these stores

started leaving soon after laws were

passed that protected shoplifters who

can now steal under $1,000 without fear

of going to jail and the results of this

Progressive Justice experiment they're

all around us not just in these empty

storefronts but also in the stores that

remain we're pretty much everything's

locked up from toothpaste to ice cream

to underwear because if it's on a shelf

it's a target for thieves who are now

part of a 4.4 billion doll thriving

shoplifting economy that exists in this

state and these thieves they're not just

stealing products to sell on Amazon or

Facebook marketplace now they're

stealing from one business to sell it

out of the doors of another business or

in the case of the city's crimer ridden

open a markets directly on the street

and the real reason this is happening

retailers shutting down leaving behind

empty storefronts that may never again

rented is because although our leaders

are proud to tell us when a

multi-million dollar theft ring gets

busted none of the people who did the

actual stealing wound up in jail they're

all still out there only the leaders got

arrested which means the number of

people running around in the city

stealing things has not decreased plus

some lawmakers see these Petty Crooks as

victims with the right to take from a

society that's been unfair to them in

some manner leaving the law abiding to

pick up the slack paying higher prices

for whatever doesn't get stolen as well

as paying higher rents because when

these storefronts shut down the

landlords jack up the rents on on the

apartments upstairs which means the real

victims here aren't the criminals

they're the law- abiding who are

subsidizing the crime that is destroying

New York and this is all going on

because of what's Happening inside

little tiny stores like the one on the

other side of this

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bus so here we have what looks like your

average everyday run-of-the-mill New

York City gift shop but the sign is new

the store is new and the company that's

here this week is is not the operation

that was busted and shut down last week

authorities recovered thousands of

stolen goods they say they say

shoplifted products from local stores

including Macy's Ulta beauty and CVS

were being sold at rahana's Cosmetics

Inc the business operated online and out

of a store on 6 Avenue in so today this

business is called the Citywide gift

shop but the other day it was a

different business that was doing

something extremely illegal and what you

had here was an example of just how out

of control New York City shoplifting has

gotten because the business that was

here was operating a physical storefront

where everything inside the store was

stolen from everything else you see

around here you've got Nordstrom across

the street retailers lining both sides

of 6th Avenue Ulta Bea's over here as

well as the Macy's flagship store right

here on 34th Street which was

specifically mentioned in the police

report as a location where they were

getting stolen merchandise and look at

this s traffic area there's a lot of

customers over here what a great place

to have an illegal business that steals

from everything else around here where

people are already shopping and

essentially these legitimate businesses

were functioning as storage facilities

full of items being stolen and sold at

the cosmetic store which means the

people running this formerly illegal

operation would never run out of

inventory on top of that there's no way

anyone could compete with them as they'd

have the lowest prices in town because

whenever they sell out of something they

just walk across the street right here

to Nordstroms and get more Manhattan

district attorney Alvin Bragg announced

recovering a million dollars in stolen

goods headed for resale we found

hundreds of boxes of stolen items

ranging from designer purses uh

electronic device so this news report it

shows photos of the inside of a storage

facility a block from here that was used

to supply the store right there because

the stolen products aren't taken

directly from one store to the other

they were stealing more stuff than they

were actually able to sell that's crazy

but when you see all these shut down

storefronts imagine trying to run a

legitimate business while having to

compete with somebody who steals your

same products and then sells them for

less and apparently the cosmetic store

that was here previously was a

well-known location for criminals to

bring stolen merchandise to get paid for

it which means not only were the

legitimate retailers around here losing

money on theft all the foot traffic

these places hope to rely on would be

worthless because their prices would now

be too high and not only are all areas

of town struggling with retail theft

when the illegal shops open up across

the street from the legal ones you know

you've got a problem and it's not just

clothing this 7-Eleven has got a major

problem with crime as well and I've been

in this store specifically and witnessed

an altercation between staff and someone

who they suspected of being a shop

uplifter he comes back every day man

that goty man that got ridiculous then

they stand right here smoke all in front

of the door blow smoke all this good

morning and look at this there's the

7-Eleven there's the old cosmetic store

you have no police patrolling any of

this neighborhood it's just a it's the

Wild Wild West it's called fencing the

people behind fencing operations often

use individual shoplifters to steal

goods from your local Dwayne Reed your

Bodega your convenience store from there

the goods are brought to the fencers

boost their bottom line by reselling

them and now before we get to the real

reason why this is happening which the

authorities have completely missed

understand that this whole theft

operation requires other people and the

folks that were running the previously

illegal store that was located here yes

they pay rent yes they have to have a

warehouse pay utilities maintain their

store which sells the stolen goods but

how do you think they get all that stuff

well they were employing armies of thugs

that you could consider Expendable to do

their dirty work and it wasn't the

owners of this place that were walking

across the street to Macy's stealing

things and then coming back here yet for

some reason the only people in trouble

here are the owners of that store not

the actual Crooks and those very same

Crooks they all got paid the moment they

brought their stolen merch from Macy's

to that other place and got money for it

and they're all still out there which

means yes a massive $1 million

shoplifting ring got shut down but all

of the infrastructure for it to exist

still exists which means there's nothing

stopping the same people from stealing

from the same stores and just offloading

their merchandise elsewhere or selling

it to a business that sells online yet

city leaders remain under the Imp

impression that they are making a big

difference using a multi-prong

prosecution strategy we can make a

lasting dent in retail theft that will

keep our store employees safe cut off

the incentives to seal and resell soen

goods and allow our retail sector so our

Progressive district attorney he might

have a soft on crime reputation but he

didn't write the laws that prevent him

from locking up the actual low-level

perpetrators but I'm curious to

understand how this is actually going to

solve the shoplifting problem because

every single Thug with sticky fingers

who stole from this place place is still

on the streets and yes many of these

criminals are vulnerable people in tough

situations maybe they're struggling with

homelessness maybe they have a substance

problem but the point is it's sad that

that's happening but there should be

some consequence for taking something

that doesn't belong to you but because

there isn't and these criminal kingpins

need inventory for their stores they

give people lists of products to go to

Ulta beauty and just rip off the shelves

or to pick up at a store like Macy's or

Nordstrom's who would reopen a store

that recently closed knowing that this

is now a possibility for your business

environment experts say this is the

reason you've got ghost towns popping up

all over the place including the entire

neighborhood south of here where every

store on 6th Avenue is

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closed so these empty storefronts are

the aftermath of what used to be a very

busy shopping district 10 blocks south

of Macy's and these are Flagship retail

locations where after the change pulled

out nobody would dare try to reopen at

one point over here you had everything

from a CVS to a Staples to a Lowe's Home

Improvement but these places are long

gone and it's not just the empty stores

this corner building has over 36,000 ft

of space available and 100,000 ft of

available space over here and this

entire building right here on the corner

it no longer has any active storefronts

on the ground level and I've lived here

long enough to remember when this area

was at its peak it was incredibly

convenient there was a lot of activity

here but that's clearly no longer the

case and even though we've got foot

traffic because it's a busy part of town

the retail climate here in New York is

such that nobody wants to take a chance

on any of these places the only place

that remains open is The Container Store

but good luck stealing from that place

everything's quite large quite bulky

hard to get out of this one exit but

something even weirder is happening now

that all these stores are gone because

these shoplifting store owners still

have to get products and they're now

branching out in ways nobody expected in

fact we're now at a point where retail

crime in New York is affecting stores

that aren't even in New York they

actually busted three different rings of

Thieves targeting the Tyson shopping

area all from New York so we're talking

about eight New Yorkers arrested in just

a week's span we have groups that will

travel up and down the 95 Corridor

mostly and they'll stop along the way

stealing from different locations on

that route to the Tyson's area so that

is a news report out of DC where New

York criminals are now raiding stores

which makes sense a lot of the stores

here are now closed so they can't steal

from them anymore and now you've got

crime Rings traveling up and down the

east coast and retail crime in New York

is now effectively being exported to

other cities and states and people here

in flat iron they're paying for all this

retail crime in more ways than just one

first of all not only is there nowhere

to buy anything around here anymore but

let's say you have a building like this

with an empty storefront downstairs well

if there are Apartments upstairs the

landlord can get his money back by

raising his rents and the other problem

is that the number of stores here shuts

down those that remain open become

subject to all of that added crime and

somebody at the local Trader Joe's was

actually attacked by a shoplifter no

employe wants to put their life on the

line for any of what's being sold in any

of these places especially for an onion

or an orange that's just ridiculous and

when you look at how obscenely

Relentless our local criminals are it's

no surprise that this is now happening

elsewhere but Fairfax County Police

Lieutenant will arnst did tell us today

that New York City is known as one of

the largest markets for stolen goods so

that may be why the New York York City

Connection the two New Yorkers were also

connected to the theft of another 16

Grand of merchandise from around the

area so that shopping mall that got hit

three times in one week and the problem

was mentioned right in the report which

is that New York City is a huge market

for stolen merchandise living cost here

is so high people are buying whatever

they can at the lowest price they can

which is why these stores are going out

of business on top of that you got

plenty of stores that are willing to buy

all that merchandise and then resell it

but physically robbing stores isn't the

only way thieves are getting their hands

on products no in fact there's a much

craftier way they steal their stolen

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merchandise so here we are inside of TJ

Maxx one of the two surviving stores in

what used to be a vibrant shopping mall

right now in this mall you've got over

100,000 feet of available space there

used to be a Bed Bath and Beyond as well

as a few other stores but those are all

closed now you've only got two left and

the crazy thing is that thieves aren't

just stealing when they rip something

off the shelf anymore no in fact they've

got a way to steal that looks so

legitimate they get away with it every

single time police arrested three people

after two apparently treding to make a

$221,000 purchase on a stolen credit

card police later finding 36 fake

driver's licenses 32 stolen credit cards

a postal service so now we're at a point

where even the people buying things at a

register that look legit could be

criminals robbing the store this gang of

criminals they had stolen credit cards

stolen driver's license stolen

identities and when fraud like that

happens at a register who do you think

pays for it certainly not the person

whose identity was stolen no this crime

gets eaten by the store that is now

losing merchandise but the fact that

they had a postal uniform and a mail key

means they were probably robbing those

mailboxes you see in New York City which

are on the side of the street where they

keep your mail before delivering it to

your home or apartment and those are

full of credit cards Social Security

numbers you know all the stuff You' need

to steal somebody's identity but no

matter how you slice it all of this

theft it's a loss and to get that loss

back the credit card company they're

going to raise their fees the stores

they're going to raise their fees and

everybody in the store is going to pay a

little bit more and then just two days

ago three people were arrested after a

Sunglass Hut employee noticed the theft

detectives later discovered around

$15,000 worth of merchandise stolen from

several other Tyson's Corner Center

stores we spoke with one woman today on

her

so if you're wondering how we get to

this level of retail crime it's because

we don't punish first offenders that's

how criminals get this good and this

clever in fact it's a misdemeanor if you

steal under $1,000 worth of stuff in New

York which means thieves have plenty of

time to practice and build up their

skills before going after real big fish

now yes on the one hand we aren't

messing up people's lives by

incarcerating them over a minor theft

but we're also at a position now where

minor theft is becoming major theft and

it's having a major impact shutting down

businesses in fact in this particular

area of town retail theft is up over

55% that is absolutely crazy and local

residents are saying all of this theft

has had a domino effect on the whole

neighborhood and honestly I don't know

how much longer TJ Maxx is going to

survive it's busy in here hopefully they

can hang in but according to the New

York Post owners and workers at these

stores all say the exact same thing

which is even when there is a theft and

they call the police nothing happens and

all the police can do is check and make

sure everybody's okay while reminding

the workers inside the store not to

engage the criminals business owners say

this is just happening more and more

every single day in this city and they

can't put up with with it forever which

is why you have some of the most

expensive real estate in the entire

country completely empty right now but

there's actually another thing squeezing

the businesses here to their very last

dollar that none of us have probably

ever considered which is that whoever

owns this chain of stores here which are

closed well they've probably got

commercial real estate somewhere else in

the city and if they've got a tenant

who's still open and able to make money

in this climate they better get that

money while they can and that's exactly

what's happening many businesses are

reporting that their rents are still

going up even though there are so many

empty storefronts and that's because

landlords know that as long as this type

of crime goes unpunished none of these

stores are going to last forever which

essentially means the business plan of

landlords that are losing money on

vacant storefronts is to have their

successful tenants subsidize losses from

everywhere else which is exactly what we

do when we shop at the supermarket or

anywhere and pay a higher price because

the stuff next to the item we bought was

stolen which brings up a pretty big

question is New York City ever going to

do anything about retail crime to

actually get these thieves off the

street or are they just going to shut

down these big operations a couple of

times a year and let the criminals roam

the streets doing what they've been

doing shutting down more businesses let

me know what you think thank you for

watching I'll see you in the next video