New York store owner fears his business ‘won’t survive’ shoplifting surge since migrant crisis began

The owner of a Queens store located 13 blocks from 17 migrant shelters says his business “will not survive” the rampant shoplifting he has faced since their arrival.

Chris Sciacco, owner of Kaiya’s Pallets at 36-37 31st St. in Long Island City, told the Post that his store is targeted up to six times a week by migrant thieves.

“It’s not fair that these people can come into my store and steal whatever they want and nothing is done about it,” Sciacco said.

Chris Sciacco’s Long Island City store, Kaiya’s Pallets, is losing $3,000 a month because of rampant theft by migrants, he said. Michael Nagle

His general merchandise store is a one-stop shop for food, clothing, electronics and necessities like diapers at wholesale prices — and that may be why it’s targeted more often than other retail stores in the neighborhood. It’s now losing at least $3,000 a month, Sciacco said.

“It affects the business and our overheads,” he said, adding: “I don’t know if we can continue to survive at this rate.”

And if this continues, Sciacco said, “I’m going to break my lease. I’m barely making ends meet. I don’t see how I’m going to be able to keep going at this rate.”

The 4,500-square-foot store opened in 2021 and in its first year of business, they’ve seen just three thefts — two of which appeared to be homeless people stealing a candy bar or two, Sciacco said.

The store is a one-stop shop for food, clothing, electronics and other essentials at wholesale prices. Michael Nagle

The store is located 13 blocks from 17 migrant shelters. Illustration from the NY Post

But since the shelters opened two years ago, it’s been virtually every day — and “small and large items” are routinely taken, said Sciacco, who cited three examples in the past two weeks alone.

On Tuesday, a man opened a box containing three bottles of Rogaine, pocketed the bottles — which cost $50 in total — and tossed the empty box onto another shelf before he ran out of product.

Another thief grabbed a bag of children’s underwear this week, stole half the pairs and left the half-empty bag, which was supposed to be sold wholesale, on the shelf.

Surveillance video from July 11 shows a man strolling into the store’s entrance around 11:30 a.m., then brazenly walking out with an entire pallet of Gatorade less than a minute later.

Within hours of the Gatorade theft, “I called [the NYPD] “Six times I waited more than eight hours and not a single police officer came to help me,” Sciacco said.

“I also tried to stop over 30 police cars on the street and not one stopped to help me or even see what was wrong,” he said.

A man brazenly stole an entire pallet of Gatorade from a store on July 11. Obtained by NY Post

An NYPD officer reportedly told Sciacco, “Well, you should hire some security guards.” Obtained by NY Post

And Sciacco said he called the NYPD at least a dozen times in the past year when he spotted a thief in his store — but claimed none showed up to investigate, and officers failed to follow up on any of the three theft reports he filed with the 114th Precinct.

When he said he reported the most recent theft in person to the police station, an officer allegedly told Sciacco, “‘Well, you should hire security guards.'”

“So I explained to [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 these kinds of hires or I’ll go bankrupt,” he said.

“It just shows that, frankly, people don’t care anymore,” said store manager Bobby Valiente, who has never had to use the bat before. Michael Nagle

The thieves also forced Sciacco to change the way he does business.

For example, “We had to start bulking underwear in here,” he said, and gestured to a bin full of men’s boxer briefs, which Sciacco began selling individually for $1 instead of wholesale because they were stolen at least once a month.

“The only way to combat theft and loss of everything is to put [it] let go and keep it within sight, hoping people won’t steal one from me [pair] of underwear for $1,” he explained.

On Friday, a dozen culprits were featured on the “Wall of Shame” inside Kaiya’s palettes. Michael Nagle

With no end in sight to rampant theft, Sciacco recently launched a “Wall of Shame” where he posts photos of thieves and notes what they have stolen.

“It just shows that, frankly, people don’t care anymore,” said store manager Bobby Valiente, who showed The Post the baseball bat he now keeps behind the cash register just in case — but fortunately has never had to use.

On Friday, a dozen perpetrators of these crimes were featured on the public wall.

The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.