Park Slope Food Coop Members Arrested for Stealing Over $18K of Groceries
The thieves were caught before they flew the coop.
The thieves were caught before they flew the coop.
In a stunning discovery, two members of the Park Slope Food Coop were arrested by the NYPD for stealing over $18,000 worth of food from the organization.
The crime was originally reported to management by cooperators working at the checkout registers. Management waited for additional proof of the crimes before reporting the matter to police, who arrested the two men separately in late November and early December. One cooperator, a 79-year-old man from Park Slope, was charged with petit larceny. The other, a 42-year-old man from Sunset Park, was charged with the same crime in addition to possession of stolen property.
Cooperator Lawrence Quigley, a member for over 20 years, told NY Daily News that he found the news surprising. “To walk out with that much stuff… it could have been spotted by satellite.”
The Park Slope Food Coop was founded in 1973 and has over 17,000 members. In exchange for a monthly work shift, members are allowed to shop for severely discounted products in the store. Hence it is the largest member-owned food market of its kind in the United States.
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The Coop does strong business, having reported $54 million in sales revenue in 2016. This is not the first instance of shoplifting at the Park Slope Food Coop, but it is one of the largest. In 2013, Coop general coordinator Joe Holtz told The New York Times that theft accounted for $438,000 in annual losses. The tallied theft of $18,000 was estimated based on a review of the two cooperators’ receipts for 2016.
Longtime manager Joe Holtz, told Brooklyn Magazine that he doesn’t understand why members steal from the Coop. “A member and an owner are interchangeable. If a member is stealing from the cooperative, they are actually stealing from themselves.”
The organization typically suspends Coop members who break the organization’s rules, but shoplifters can be banned for life. While the ruling hasn’t been yet been made in this case, it will still baffle fellow cooperators for now.
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