NYC Block Overrun With Hookers, Shoplifters 'Getting Worse'

A neighborhood in Queens, New York swarming with shoplifters, prostitutes, and other illegal activity has gotten even worse, the New York Post reports. A strip of Roosevelt Avenue near 91st Street in Jackson Heights has become overrun with hookers and thieves who threaten store owners, locals told the news outlet.

Jesus Diaz, manager of Bravo Supermarket, told the Post, "It's getting worse. It used to be when we catch them stealing, they say, 'Oh, I'm sorry, please, I'll never do it again.'

"Now," he said, "They're getting angry. They're trying to punch you, telling you, 'You're going to have a problem,' telling you, 'We're coming back and you're going to have some real trouble.'" Diaz added, "You call and tell the cops that you caught them stealing and that you're holding them, waiting for them, and the cops, they don't even want to come, they don't want to arrest these people."

Another store owner lamented the number of sex workers hanging around outside her business at any given time. She said, "Too much ladies in front of my door. This is not like before. Before it was very clean here."

She said, "There is the brothel across the street and then the brothel behind us here. Everyone knows."

The Post previously reported that business owners had complained of shoplifters stealing their merchandise and selling the loot in makeshift markets on the street right outside. On Sunday, pharmacist Jenny Leal told The Post, "People don't want to come to the pharmacy because of the sidewalks here." She pointed out more than two dozen illegal vendors who had set up on the street to sell their wares. She said, "The cops come, do sweeps. Two weeks ago, two Sundays ago, the police came, cleaned them out, and no people were here the last Sunday. But look, today, all the people come."

A neighborhood resident told The Post, "I gave up," he said. "Look, this is it. They got it, better get used to it." He said, "We went to the precinct, and it's not like the cops are not doing their jobs, or they don't give a s—t. They're outnumbered — really outnumbered."