The deadly confrontation between a chronic shoplifter and a CVS store clerk shocked the city — but those who work in retail say dealing with an epidemic of shoplifting has become a troubling part of their working days.
New York City has been hit with a post-COVID-19 spike in shoplifting, with petty larcenies jumping 44% between 2021 and 2022. Employees at beauty stores, drug stores and supermarkets told The New York Daily News they grapple with confronting people taking items from their stores.
Some, after seeing people try to sneak out with stolen goods in hiking backpacks, grocery carts, plastic bags and in their pants pockets, try to calmly ask them to return the items. Others don’t see the risk as worth it, no matter how much merchandise they might take from the store.
Alex J., 30, an employee at Eve Beauty Source on Eighth Ave. in Midtown, says he often squabbles with shoplifters.
“It happens all the time,” he said. “They get angry … They knock down shelves and leave angry, saying they’ll come back next week.”
The deadly confrontation at CVS took place July 6, when Charles Brito punched store clerk Scotty Enoe in the face as Enoe tried to prevent him from shoplifting. The two men, prosecutors say, had tangled before, but this time Enoe pulled out a knife and stabbed Brito in the torso. Enoe is facing charges in the killing.
The possibility of a fight can put anyone on edge even when things are going fine at the store, where employees have the personal numbers of cops on speed dial and there are two large screens prominently displayed in the store, showing dozen of camera angles.
“A lot of homeless people take stuff from the store,” Alex J. said. “We watch them back on the cameras.”
As of July 2, petit larcenies in the Midtown North precinct jumped 14.6% — with 170 more cases this year than 2022 — according to New York Police Department stats. Compared to the same period in 2021, the precinct saw a huge 54.4% jump in petit larcenies.
In response to the surge in shoplifting, some larger chain stores have beefed up their security, while small businesses unable to staff more people are feeling more precarious.
Mayor Eric Adams and city officials released a plan in May to tamp down on retail theft, with goals to address root causes like poverty and drug addiction while focusing in on organized retail theft.
Niam Lloyd, manager of the Gourmet Garage on W. 66th St., said he weighs the risks when thinking about whether to confront a shoplifter.
“A guy was trying to steal milk and we stopped him and caught him by the door, but he could’ve hurt himself on the wall of the door, so we ended up letting him go,” he said.
For Lloyd, the possibility of not just violence but also a potential lawsuit is a deterrent to confronting thieves. Employees at the store are advised not to confront shoplifters because of the potential for violence or bigger programs, but that confrontations do happen.
“You do feel bad, but you try to avoid having problems,” Lloyd said of letting shoplifters get away with it. “You just try to avoid the worst of it.”
People come to the store with grocery carts, backpacks and multiple bags, ready to take from the store and leave without paying, he said. The store stopped selling Tide Pods because people were stealing so many of them.
“We couldn’t do anything about it,” Lloyd said. “They kind of just take it and walk out the store. Guys come with carts … The guys who take laundry detergent, those are the guys who walk around, try to look discreet or whatever and next thing you know, they’re filling their carts up … They be taking like eight bottles at a time.”
Most of the shoplifting at the supermarket goes unreported, he said.
A Duane Reade security guard pays attention to the headlines and is unnerved when violent stories of shopping confirmations gone wrong play in the news, but he considers the risk part of his job.
The guard, who works at various Duane Reade locations across the city and declined to give his name since he isn’t allowed to talk to the media, said he’s gotten to recognize certain thieves.
He’s pulled a gun on shoplifters several times and once got into a fistfight with a man trying to leave the store with multiple bags chock-full of items.
“These guys are constantly going to stores to try to grab stuff. That’s why we have to lock up everything,” he said, gesturing around. “And they’ll try to smash it open, too, because that’s the stuff they’re looking for. The crackheads, they don’t let the glass stop them.”
Yuri Morales, a West Harlem resident who works at a Bliss Beauty store, is a little more wary of shoplifters.
“You don’t know if they have a knife or something,” she said, adding that two years ago, a worker at the store got into a fistfight with a shoplifter. “After that, that’s why the boss said, ‘Don’t talk to no one,” Morales, 36, said.
Morales said that although shoplifting is less of a problem this year than last, it continues to affect the store. Often, she’ll see people selling stolen products from the beauty store on the street outside.
“They leave with one bag, and another bag, full of stolen products, and they sell it for a little money,” she said in Spanish.
