MANHATTAN — Back in September, several Duane Reade locations suffered a rash of robberies. The hits were sizeable and perpetrators focused solely on mass quantities of feminine products, from pregnancy tests to tampons.
A sting operation was organized to put an end to the oddly specific thievery. NYPD officers were brought in to make the arrests and make sure things didn’t turn violent.
But the planning and strategy fell largely to an inside man — Dario Dela Cruz, 31, a member of Duane Reade’s plainclothed undercover Store Detectives Program.
Unbeknownst to most city shoppers, the ubiquitous drugstore has a specialized team of security personnel that most people don't know about. They don’t wear uniforms or badges, and spend their days blending into Duane Reade stores and keeping an eye out for trouble.
Their boss, John Murphy, doesn’t want them photographed out of concern for their safety and for their ability to do their job effectively.
The purpose of Murphy’s team is not to sniff out the average shoplifter — the teenager who swipes a tube of lipstick, for example. Instead, they police organized retail crime, cases in which people steal large quantities of certain items and resell them on the street.
The rapidly-disappearing stock of feminine products was one example, Murphy explained.
His team charted the thefts over time, noting the amount taken and narrowing down the targeted stores to about half a dozen locations in the city.
"They were hitting us big, for like grand larceny amounts," recalled Dela Cruz, who lives in the Bronx. "I told John, 'They’re going to come again next Sunday. We’ve got to do something about this.'"
So they did, and four hours into the sting operation — conducted in coordination with the NYPD — Murphy got a phone call from Dela Cruz.
“He goes, ‘Just want you to know that we got them. They’re all in jail,’” Murphy recalled, smiling. “It’s my proudest moment of him.”
For the past six years, Dela Cruz has been a member of Duane Reade’s covert security team, the size of which his boss refused to divulge.
Before that, Dela Cruz worked construction jobs and did some demolition. He also worked security for Barnes & Noble. But the gig at Duane Reade constituted a significant career advancement, he said.
The drug store security guard seems to have a knack for knowing when criminals are going to strike, so Dela Cruz has become one of Murphy’s most trusted advisers when it comes to planning an operation. But Dela Cruz also works out in the field, going undercover inside stores.
“If I stare at [suspects], I get made like that,” Dela Cruz said, snapping his fingers.
So instead of leaning against a wall and surveying, he idly turns products over in his hands and watches out the corners of his eyes.
He's gotten good at blending in. People have nabbed products while standing right next to him, stuffing boxes and bottles out of sight and making for the door.
As soon as they bypass the cash register, Dela Cruz makes his move. If he’s working with the NYPD, he coordinates with them to make sure officers are stationed outside, waiting to make arrests. If he’s on his own, he’ll attempt to apprehend suspects himself.
He can't arrest anyone, but he takes down their identification, retrieves the merchandise and logs everything into Duane Reade’s exhaustive criminal trespass database.
Not every apprehension results in an arrest, depending on the circumstances, but each one is diligently documented, Murphy said.
For his work thwarting crime, Dela Cruz was honored recently with the 17th precinct’s community service award. He is the first of the Duane Reade store detectives to receive such an honor from any precinct in the city, Murphy said.
In presenting the award, John Hart, deputy inspector of the 17th precinct, hailed Dela Cruz as “a big assistance” to the precinct. Dela Cruz has supplied them with video footage and accounts of past crimes, and he’s identified suspects on sight.
“Dario has helped us put some people in jail,” Hart said.
“[Duane Reade stores] have a fair amount of people in there doing the wrong thing,” Hart added. “[Dario’s] been doing it so long, he knows who they are.”
Dela Cruz said it feels good to keep the stores from losing merchandise and money. His wife worries that the work is too dangerous, but Dela Cruz said he’s never been hurt. When an altercation with a suspect turns physical, Dela Cruz has been instructed to let the person and the merchandise go.
No amount of product is worth someone getting hurt, Murphy added.
“It’s a fun job,” Dela Cruz explained. “I’ve worked with my team, the whole team, the past six years, and I’m having a great time with them.”
And as for the award from the NYPD?
“I showed it to my mom,” he said, smiling.
“She was very, very happy.”
