Thieves break into the system and leave it to steal again

A trio of shoplifters have made nearly 300 arrests between them, and yet they keep getting caught stealing, annoyed police officers told the Washington Post this week.

The worst of all, according to police, is Ian Mullens, a Queens man who has 119 arrests to his name since 2000, including three since June.

Mullens, 49, of Flushing, was arrested on 15 felonies, 80 misdemeanors and 20 misdemeanors. He was released after his most recent arrest on June 12 after allegedly stealing $177 worth of merchandise from a Target in Kips Bay because shoplifting is not a crime eligible for bail, officials said. Since 2020, when bail reform went into effect, he has been arrested a staggering 35 times for shoplifting, police sources said.

The other two are:

• Joel Hardy, 38, whose address is unknown, has been arrested 103 times since 1999 for 39 felonies, 50 misdemeanors and 14 misdemeanors. He was most recently arrested on July 31 for assaulting an officer at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, police said. He has been arrested 10 times since 2020 for shoplifting.

• Muhsin Freeman, 47, of Jackson Heights, has been arrested 54 times, 14 for felonies and 39 for misdemeanors, most of them since 2020, when bail reform went into effect, cops said. He was arrested in June after allegedly stealing 17 times from a Target in Elmhurst in a two-month period, court records show. Freeman, who has been arrested 29 times for petty theft since 2020, is currently wanted on a warrant for failure to appear in criminal court.

“You are the perfect example of what is wrong with the system right now,” a disgusted NYPD detective told the Post. “This is something cops deal with all the time.”

When Freeman was hauled into Queens Criminal Court on July 18 for a series of 17 alleged thefts at Target between April 7 and June 10, prosecutors asked for an unusually high bail of $25,000.

But Queens Criminal Court Judge Edward Daniels, who was appointed by Mayor Adams in April and previously worked for the criminal defense group Brooklyn Defender Services, released him. Freeman failed to appear for a July 1 court hearing on the charges, court records show.

“Are we surprised?” joked a longtime Bronx detective. “At some point the courts have to realize that you can't just keep releasing people.”

The Queens District Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment on Freeman's case.

“These liberal judges believe that their community is not affected by this because they don't live there. That's why this will continue to happen,” the detective added.

Store employees and customers are equally frustrated – some of them even accused the companies of not doing enough to combat shoplifters.

Shopper Nilda Marimol believes Target and other stores should take more responsibility in solving the problem.

“If it were my business, I would work with a police officer and a neighborhood politician,” Marimol said. “Since the city isn't helping that much, Target should do something about it.”

Target, which said it cost between $700 million and $800 million in shoplifting in 2022, recently instructed its store staff to stop bandits attempting to flee with items totaling $50 (previously the limit was $100).

The retail giant announced last year the closure of nine stores in four states due to theft, including one in Harlem.

“These stores need more security staff,” said Ray Ocasio, a Walgreens customer. “This is ridiculous. They need to fix this problem.”

Security guards don't always stop people because they don't want a physical confrontation. In June, a security guard at Duane Reade in Midtown was stabbed and seriously injured while trying to stop a shoplifter, police said.

“They don't want to mess with these people,” said a CVS customer from Turtle Bay. “They just avoid them because they don't want a fight.”

According to NYPD data, shoplifting in Gotham has increased 2.8% this year to 37,115 reported incidents, compared to 36,087 during the same period last year.

“The city needs a better way to hold them accountable,” said Liz Segovia, a Sunnyside resident who has seen CVS and Rite Aid close in recent years. “If they're just arrested and released, they're obviously going to keep doing it.”

The New York Police Department blamed bail reform – which made many non-violent crimes, including most shoplifting cases, into non-bailable offenses – and left-leaning judges for “failing New Yorkers and making our communities less safe by allowing repeat offenders to keep hitting the streets.”

“For individuals with a history of recidivism, as well as criminals who commit violent crimes, judges must be allowed to determine the best way to ensure that offenders do not victimize anyone else,” the ministry said.

Paul Guzik, a tourist from California who was shopping for a few things at a CVS in Murray Hill this week, felt at home on the East Coast.

“It's the same chaos here as on the West Coast,” said California tourist Paul Guzik, who was shopping at a CVS store in Murray Hill. “The same chaos, the same problems and the same lack of solutions from Democratic leaders.”