The owner of a Queens store located within 13 blocks of 17 migrant shelters says his business “can’t survive” the rampant shoplifting they’ve had to deal with since their arrival.
Chris Ciacco, owner of Gaia’s Pallets at 36-37 31st St. in Long Island City, told The Post that his store is targeted by immigrant thieves six times a week.
“It’s not fair that these people can come into my store and steal willy-nilly and not do anything about it,” Sciacco said.
His variety store is a one-stop shop for staples like food, clothes, electronics and diapers at wholesale prices — and that’s probably why he’s targeted more often than other retail stores in Nabi. Now it’s bleeding at least $3,000 a month, Sciacco said.
“It’s hurting business and hurting our overhead,” he said, “and I don’t know if we can continue to survive at this rate.”
If that continues, Ciacco said: “I’m going to cancel my lease. I rarely get through. I don’t know how I can continue at this rate.
The 4,500-square-foot store opened in 2021 and in its first year of business, they saw only three thefts — two of which appeared to be homeless people stealing a candy bar or two, Ciacco said.
But since the shelters opened in the past two years, it’s been taken practically every day — and “small items and big items” continue to be taken, Sciacco said, pointing to a trio of examples in the past two weeks.
- On Tuesday, a man opened a box containing three bottles of Rogaine, pocketed the bottles — worth a total of $50 — and tossed the empty box on another shelf before running out.
- Another thief took a bag of children’s underwear this week, stole half the pairs and put the half-empty bag back on the shelf to be sold wholesale.
- Video surveillance from July 11 shows a man stumbling into the store’s entrance around 11:30 a.m., then brazenly walking out a minute later with a full board of Gatorade.
A few hours after the Gatorade theft, “I called [the NYPD] I waited 6 times, more than 8 hours, and not a single policeman came to help me,” said Ciacco.
“I tried to flag down over 30 police cars on the street and not one stopped to help me or see what was wrong,” he said.
And Ciacco said she called the NYPD at least a dozen times when she saw a shoplifter — but no one came forward to investigate, nor did authorities follow up on any of the three theft reports she filed. 114th Precinct.
When he said he reported the most recent theft in person on campus, an officer told Ciacco, “‘Well, you’re going to have to hire security.’
“So I explained [the cop]I’m a one-man band trying to make it in this expensive city — I’m not a company that can afford to spend money on those kinds of hires or I’ll be out of business,” he said.
Thieves have forced Ciacco to change how he does business.
For example, “We have to keep the underwear loose here,” he said, gesturing toward a bin full of men’s boxers, which Sciacco started selling individually for $1 rather than wholesale because it was stolen at least once a month. .
“The only way to combat theft and losing the whole thing is to put up [it] They keep it loose and inconspicuous, hoping people won’t steal one [pair] Underwear for $1,” he explained.
With no end in sight to the rampant theft, Sciacco recently started a “wall of work” where he posts photos of thieves and mentions what they’ve stolen.
“Obviously, it shows that people don’t care anymore,” said store manager Bobby Valinte, who showed The Post the baseball bat he now keeps behind the cash register — but, thankfully, never was. to use
As of Friday, the public-facing wall featured a dozen criminals.
The NYPD did not return a request for comment.
