After numerous reports of shoplifting at the popular grocery store, cops from the 76th Precinct have begun posing as shoppers in the Court Street Trader Joe's to catch the thieves. But last week they finally caught their first purse snatcher. The Brooklyn Paper reports cops caught a man stealing a woman's purse out of her cart—unaware that the innocent looking shopper was really a cop, who had radioed a description of the suspect to cops waiting outside. “We have to wait for him to leave the store,” said Capt. Kenneth Corey. “Otherwise, he could say, ‘I was just going to return it to the cashier.’ ”
A small amount of cash had been placed in the purse so the cops could count the nabbing as a crime, and they also found a small amount of marijuana on the suspect. There have already been four crimes of this type at the Court Street Trader Joe's this year, and Corey says it has to do with the store's chill environment. “I’ve been in there myself and there’s a high comfort level...People walk away from their bags for 10 minutes, even."
