New York store owner fears his business ‘won’t survive’ rampant looting since start of migrant crisis

A Queens store owner located 13 blocks from 17 migrant shelters says his business “will not survive” the rampant thefts it has had to endure since they arrived.

Chris Sciaco, owner of Kaya Pallets at 36-37 31st Street in Long Island City, told The Post that his store is targeted up to six times a week by immigrant thieves.

“It’s not fair that these people come to my store and steal as they please and nothing is done about it,” Siako said.

His variety store is a one-stop shop for groceries, clothing, electronics and essentials like diapers at wholesale prices — which is probably why it has been targeted more than other retailers in the area. Siako said he now bleeds at least $3,000 a month.

“It’s affecting the business and it’s affecting our overhead,” he said, adding, “I don’t know if we can continue to survive at this rate.”

If it continues like this, Siako said, “I’m going to cancel my lease. I can barely make ends meet. I don’t see how I can continue at this rate.”

The 4,500-square-foot store opened in 2021, and in its first year in business, they’ve only seen three thefts — two of which appeared to be homeless people stealing a candy bar or two, Siaco said.

But since shelters opened in the past two years, it’s been happening almost every day — with “small and big things” being taken regularly, said Siako, who cited three examples in just the past two weeks.

• On Tuesday, a man opened a box containing three bottles of Rogaine, put the bottles in his pocket — totaling $50 — and then dumped the empty box on another shelf before the bottle ran out.
• Another thief this week stole a bag full of children’s underwear, took half the clothes and left the half-empty bag, which was to be sold in bulk, on a shelf.
• Surveillance cameras on July 11 show a man wandering into the store’s entrance around 11:30 a.m., then brazenly exiting with a full stand of Gatorade less than a minute later.

In the hours after the Gatorade theft, “I called [the NYPD] “I waited 6 times, more than 8 hours, and no policeman showed up to help me,” Siako said.

“I also tried to flag down over 30 police cars on the street and not a single one of them stopped to help me or even see what was wrong,” he said angrily.

Siaco said he called the NYPD at least a dozen times over the past year when he saw a thief in his store — but he claimed no one showed up to investigate, and officers did not follow up on any of the three theft reports he filed with the 114th Precinct.

When he said he had reported the recent robbery personally to the police department, an officer allegedly told Shakko, “Well, you should hire security.”

So I explained to [the cop]“I’m a one-man band trying to make it in this expensive city – I’m not a company that can afford to spend money on this kind of hiring or I’ll go out of business,” he said.

The thieves also forced Siako to change the way he ran the business.

For example, he said, “We had to start putting underwear loosely in here,” pointing to a basket full of men’s underwear, which Siako began selling individually for $1 instead of in bulk because they were being stolen at least once a month.

The only way to combat theft and losing everything is to put [it] Loose and keep it in plain sight, hoping people don’t steal it. [pair] “Underwear for a dollar,” he explained.

With no end in sight to the rampant theft, Siyako recently started a “wall of shame” where he posts photos of thieves and notes what they stole.

“This just proves that people don’t care anymore,” said store manager Bobby Valenti, who showed The Washington Post the baseball bat he now keeps behind the checkout in case of emergency — but fortunately never has to use.

By Friday, there were twelve perpetrators displayed on the public wall.

The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.