Police Say Thiefs Targeting Duane Reade

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The New York Sun

While Duane Reade is considered convenient for one-stop shopping, a number of people lately have found it an ideal place for one-stop shoplifting.


Police sources said the drugstore chain’s branches on the Upper East Side have been targeted by burglars and robbers at an alarming rate, with 40 incidents above 59th Street this year. That number does not include petit larcenies.


The most recent theft was reported last Tuesday. Wilson Lorenzo, 47, is accused of burglarizing the store at 773 Lexington Ave. between 60th and 61st streets, taking five boxes of Theraflu valued at $29. The Manhattan district attorney’s office charged him with burglary and his next court date is December 6.


Among the merchandise stolen this year by thieves and burglars has been chewing gum, toothpaste, nicotine patches, medication, perfume, cigarettes, and shoppers’ wallets. In one case, an employee was arrested and charged with stealing bottles of OxyContin.


While reports of thefts from Duane Reade is not a new phenomenon on the Upper East Side, police said there has been a recent flurry of activity at the drugstore chain. Of the 33 robberies reported in the silk stocking district between October 3 and 30, three were at Duane Reade stores. Police have met with the firm that handles security for Duane Reade’s 230 stores throughout New York, Sottile Security, in an effort to stem the thefts. Sottile Security declined to comment and Duane Reade did not return calls seeking comment.


The products most likely were stolen for personal consumption, a professor in the law and police science department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Dennis Kenney, said. Because consumer goods have a high value and are difficult to trace, it is conceivable they were resold on the streets, he said.


Although it was not immediately clear if the series of thefts is unique to the East Side, Mr. Kenney said, “There’s a rich number of stores there. The bad guys would look at it as a target-rich environment.” He said that the reasoning behind the thefts could be a bit like the notorious response by Willy Sutton to the question of why he robbed banks – because that is where the money was.


Robbery was the only major crime to spike on the East Side between 59th and 96th streets in the 28-day period through October 30, to 33 from 11 reports from the same period last year, Police Department data indicate. For the year through October 30, however, robbery was down slightly on the Upper East Side, to 237 from 238 reports, Police Department figures show. Overall, major crime on the Upper East Side dropped this year to 2,395 from 2,674 incidents in 2004.


The upswing in robbery complaints on the East Side mirrors the direction of robbery reports citywide for the most recent 28-day period, as well as for the year. But as with the Upper East Side, major crime is down in the city for the year.


The New York Sun

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