A store owner in Queens, 13 blocks from the 17 refugee shelter, said his business “wouldn’t survive” the rampant theft it has endured since his arrival.
Chris Ciaco, owner of Kaya Pallets at 36-37 31st Street in Long Island City, told The Post that his business is targeted by immigrant thieves up to six times a week.
“It’s not fair that these people can come into my store and steal at will and nothing will be done about it,” Ciaco said.
His department store is a one-stop shop for staples like groceries, clothing, electronics and diapers at wholesale prices — which is why it’s more targeted than other retailers in the area. Ciaco says he now bleeds at least $3,000 a month.
“It affects business and affects our overhead,” he said, adding, “I don’t know if we can survive at this rate.”
If it continues, Ciaco said: “I will end my lease. I’m barely making ends meet. I don’t see how I can continue at this rate.”
The 4,500-square-foot store opened in 2021 and had just three burglaries in its first year of operation — two of which appeared to involve homeless people stealing a candy bar or two, Ciacco said.
But since the shelter opened in the past two years, it’s been happening almost every day — and “both small and big things” are being taken regularly, said Ciaco, who gave three examples in the past two weeks alone.
- On Tuesday, a man opened a box containing three bottles of Rogaine, pocketed the bottles — worth a total of $50 — and then dropped the empty box on another shelf before the bottles were gone.
- Another thief made off with a bag full of children’s underwear this week, stealing half the clothes and leaving the half-empty bag on the shelf to sell wholesale.
- On July 11, surveillance cameras showed a man entering the store’s entrance around 11:30 a.m. and brazenly walking away less than a minute later with a full box of Gatorade.
A few hours after the Gatorade robbery, “I call [the NYPD] “Six times I waited more than eight hours and no police officer came to help me,” Ciaco said.
“I tried to stop more than 30 police cars on the road, but not one of them even stopped to help me or see what was going on,” he said angrily.
Ciacco said she called the NYPD at least a dozen times in the past year when she saw a shoplifter at her store — but she claims no one came to investigate, nor did officers respond to any of the three theft reports she filed at New York Police Department 114. followed up with th police department.
When he said he personally reported the recent robbery to police, an officer allegedly told Chacko, “Well, you should hire security.”
“So I explained [the cop]”I’m a one-man team trying to make it in this expensive city — I’m not a company that can afford to spend that kind of hiring or I’ll be out of business,” he said.
The thieves also forced Siako to change his business model.
For example: “We had to start loosening the underwear here,” he said, pointing to a basket full of men’s underwear that Siaco started selling individually for $1 instead of wholesale because it was stolen at least once a month.
“The only way to combat theft and loss of everything is to … [it] Take it apart and put it in plain sight in the hope that people don’t steal it [pair] “Underwear for a dollar,” he explained.
There is no end to the rampant theft, Ciaco recently started a “wall of shame” where he posts photos of thieves and notes what they stole.
“It proves that people don’t care,” said store manager Bobby Valente, who showed The Washington Post the baseball bat he now keeps behind the register in case of emergencies — but which, fortunately, he’s never had to use.
As of Friday, twelve perpetrators of the crime can be seen on the publicly accessible wall.
The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment.
