Distraction and extraction. These are the skills, timeless, of thousands of thieves who work in New York, without a weapon and without attracting notice.
Where in the city can such a thief visit dozens of happy hunting spots on an afternoon’s walk, finding rooms crowded with people staring at laptops or iPads, or texting or talking on phones, and ignoring their purses? A place so comfortable and familiar, with its jazz, leather chairs and Wi-Fi, that customers, otherwise savvy to the city’s dangers, do not think twice about saving a round blond-wood table with a bag or a laptop while they stand in line?
You may be there now, with a grande caffè mocha.
Starbucks shops are ubiquitous in New York, a respite for tourists and professionals young and old, and while the city’s criminal trends come and go and ebb and flow, there remains a steady march of handbags from those shops in someone else’s hands.
From Times Square to the Village to Brooklyn Heights, Starbucks pops up again and again on police blotters. Officers have set up stings in the chain’s stores. A commander even asked one branch to put up a sign warning customers; the manager demurred, saying such a sign required corporate approval.
No doubt such a sign would dampen the mood.
“You can let your guard down — people are sitting down and talking and using their laptops,” said Capt. Mark DiPaolo of the 84th Precinct in Brooklyn Heights, home to a Court Street Starbucks that has been the scene of four bag thefts this year. “It is a comfort zone that people have.”
Another commanding officer said people who left laptops behind to use the restroom should not be surprised to return to an empty table.
Not to pick on the chain, based in Seattle. No one has tallied the number of Starbucks thefts, and purses and bags walk out of any number of restaurants and bars day and night. Grand larcenies — the theft of anything over $1,000, which is almost every purse with a credit card inside — remain the Police Department’s most vexing crime, as preventable as it is commonplace.
“I think it’s great people are so comfortable with New York City,” said Lt. Dan Hollywood, who is on the Grand Larceny Task Force in the Manhattan South precincts. “But we’ve turned it around enough; maybe they’re not quite as raised up as they used to be.”
The phenomenon, like the chain , is familiar outside of New York. There have been reports in the news media of thefts in Starbucks in places like Hoboken, N.J.; Birmingham, Mich.; Berkeley, Calif.; and Toronto. The wife of the chairman of the Federal Reserve had her purse stolen from a Starbucks in the District of Columbia and became a victim of an identity-theft scheme.
Lieutenant Hollywood and other officers say one reason Starbucks is frequently the scene of thefts is because there are so many of the shops in the city: 298 and counting.
A sampling: A woman sat down around 4 p.m. on the afternoon of Feb. 12 on a bench in the Starbucks on Spring and Crosby Streets in SoHo, setting her purse beside her while she used her laptop. She turned around — no more purse. She described to the police a man who had been sitting nearby, but security video was no help. She has yet to recover a Marc Jacobs wallet and its contents, including a ring and necklace together worth $1,200.
At the same Starbucks a month later, a woman sat with her father, looking at a map, her purse on another chair with a coat on top. The police officer who took her complaint later sheepishly admitted, “I do that all the time.” Someone took the purse with the wallet, credit cards and BlackBerry inside. To add insult to injury, a man approached later and said he had seen the whole thing. Then a woman walked up and said the same. Neither had spoken up during the theft.
Another month passed, and a woman hung her pocketbook on a hook on the wall and went to order what turned out to be a most expensive cup of coffee.
Starbucks replied to questions about thefts with an e-mail from corporate headquarters: “Customers should always be aware of their surroundings when in public places, whether at one of our stores or elsewhere.”
Lieutenant Hollywood, anonymous in plain clothes, walked into a Starbucks in Times Square this week and pointed. “See that bag by the newspapers?” he asked, rolling his eyes. At another Starbucks on West 41st Street, he was surprised to recognize a woman he had arrested for shoplifting a few years ago, so he took a seat and watched her. She left empty-handed.
His task force arrested about 200 suspects in grand larcenies witnessed by officers last year. One of the arrestees, a 50-year-old man, sat near a woman in a Starbucks on Union Square West and took her purse in July, the police said.
In February last year, the team arrested a 53-year-old parolee when officers saw him grab a police “decoy bag” in a Starbucks on Fifth Avenue. Two blocks away, in 2009, the police said, a 46-year-old man snatched an unattended laptop off a table.
A good thief can sit back-to-back to a mark and empty a purse hanging on the chair between them.
Lieutenant Hollywood stood in the center of a Starbucks on West 47th Street, glancing about the room, when a man approached and said, “You in line?”
No. “I’m not a coffee guy.”
You may be there now, with a grande caffè mocha.
Starbucks shops are ubiquitous in New York, a respite for tourists and professionals young and old, and while the city’s criminal trends come and go and ebb and flow, there remains a steady march of handbags from those shops in someone else’s hands.
From Times Square to the Village to Brooklyn Heights, Starbucks pops up again and again on police blotters. Officers have set up stings in the chain’s stores. A commander even asked one branch to put up a sign warning customers; the manager demurred, saying such a sign required corporate approval.
No doubt such a sign would dampen the mood.
“You can let your guard down — people are sitting down and talking and using their laptops,” said Capt. Mark DiPaolo of the 84th Precinct in Brooklyn Heights, home to a Court Street Starbucks that has been the scene of four bag thefts this year. “It is a comfort zone that people have.”
Another commanding officer said people who left laptops behind to use the restroom should not be surprised to return to an empty table.
Not to pick on the chain, based in Seattle. No one has tallied the number of Starbucks thefts, and purses and bags walk out of any number of restaurants and bars day and night. Grand larcenies — the theft of anything over $1,000, which is almost every purse with a credit card inside — remain the Police Department’s most vexing crime, as preventable as it is commonplace.
“I think it’s great people are so comfortable with New York City,” said Lt. Dan Hollywood, who is on the Grand Larceny Task Force in the Manhattan South precincts. “But we’ve turned it around enough; maybe they’re not quite as raised up as they used to be.”
The phenomenon, like the chain , is familiar outside of New York. There have been reports in the news media of thefts in Starbucks in places like Hoboken, N.J.; Birmingham, Mich.; Berkeley, Calif.; and Toronto. The wife of the chairman of the Federal Reserve had her purse stolen from a Starbucks in the District of Columbia and became a victim of an identity-theft scheme.
Lieutenant Hollywood and other officers say one reason Starbucks is frequently the scene of thefts is because there are so many of the shops in the city: 298 and counting.
A sampling: A woman sat down around 4 p.m. on the afternoon of Feb. 12 on a bench in the Starbucks on Spring and Crosby Streets in SoHo, setting her purse beside her while she used her laptop. She turned around — no more purse. She described to the police a man who had been sitting nearby, but security video was no help. She has yet to recover a Marc Jacobs wallet and its contents, including a ring and necklace together worth $1,200.
At the same Starbucks a month later, a woman sat with her father, looking at a map, her purse on another chair with a coat on top. The police officer who took her complaint later sheepishly admitted, “I do that all the time.” Someone took the purse with the wallet, credit cards and BlackBerry inside. To add insult to injury, a man approached later and said he had seen the whole thing. Then a woman walked up and said the same. Neither had spoken up during the theft.
Another month passed, and a woman hung her pocketbook on a hook on the wall and went to order what turned out to be a most expensive cup of coffee.
Starbucks replied to questions about thefts with an e-mail from corporate headquarters: “Customers should always be aware of their surroundings when in public places, whether at one of our stores or elsewhere.”
Lieutenant Hollywood, anonymous in plain clothes, walked into a Starbucks in Times Square this week and pointed. “See that bag by the newspapers?” he asked, rolling his eyes. At another Starbucks on West 41st Street, he was surprised to recognize a woman he had arrested for shoplifting a few years ago, so he took a seat and watched her. She left empty-handed.
His task force arrested about 200 suspects in grand larcenies witnessed by officers last year. One of the arrestees, a 50-year-old man, sat near a woman in a Starbucks on Union Square West and took her purse in July, the police said.
In February last year, the team arrested a 53-year-old parolee when officers saw him grab a police “decoy bag” in a Starbucks on Fifth Avenue. Two blocks away, in 2009, the police said, a 46-year-old man snatched an unattended laptop off a table.
A good thief can sit back-to-back to a mark and empty a purse hanging on the chair between them.
Lieutenant Hollywood stood in the center of a Starbucks on West 47th Street, glancing about the room, when a man approached and said, “You in line?”
No. “I’m not a coffee guy.”
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