UNION SQUARE — A homeless man tried to walk out of a Food Emporium without paying for 50 cartons of Häagan-Dazs icecream he had stuffed into his backpack, according to the NYPD.
The 39-year-old suspect walked into the 10 Union Square East grocery at about 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 15 and stuffed the icy treats into his bag, but didn't make it out the door before security guards stopped him, police said.
►MAP: Teams of Haagen-Dazs Shoplifters Hit Manhattan Stores
The man, who lives in the 30th Street Men's shelter in Kips Bay, was issued a desk-appearance ticket charging him with petit larceny and possession of stolen property, an NYPD spokeswoman said.
Employees at the store declined to comment on Wednesday.
The attempted theft is the latest in a trend of mass ice cream thefts that have plagued pharmacies and grocery stores in the past year. After stealing the ice cream, the thieves often re-sell the cartons to bodegas at a discount, according to an NYPD official.
On some occasions the thefts appeared organized, police said. In February officers arrested a Kips Bay man and several younger accomplices after connecting them to ice cream thefts at six Duane Reade and CVS pharmacies in Manhattan.
The ringleader later pleaded guilty to petit larceny and was ordered to serve 10 days of community service, according to a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
In another recent incident a thief tried to grab more than $100 worth of ice cream from a grocery store in Downtown Brooklyn, but dropped his haul when employees confronted him, according to police reports.
The problem has gotten so bad in some places that John Catsimatidis, the owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain and former mayoral hopeful, offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of ice-cream bandits, according to the New York Post.
