Let’s talk about lemons.
Police finally decapitated a Manhattan retailer’s thug who had robbed Lululemon stores 12 times since January, including six times at one store, sources said.
Vincent Trafficante, a 37-year-old “alone repeat offender,” has been arrested more than a dozen times this year for his insatiable hobby of robbing Manhattan’s luxury boutique Lululemon, law enforcement sources tell The Post. I made it.
But his twisted antics ended on Tuesday inside a famous brand store in Soho, where he was caught red-handed with more than a dozen bags stuffed with expensive goods.
“He operates primarily on Long Island,” said one law enforcement official. “But just in January of this year, he came to New York. And he’s running wild here.”
Trafficante was charged Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court with two counts of third-degree larceny and one count of fourth-degree grand larceny for stealing high-value merchandise from two Lululemon stores on three separate occasions in the last month, according to the complaint. It was done.
According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Judge Jonathan Svetky set Traficante’s bail at $10,000 cash, $20,000 insurance bond, and $30,000 surety/bond/partial bond, setting the career fraudster’s bond at $30,000. cited a long list of past charges.
Svetky had his parole suspended for another robbery attempt on Long Island.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for this thief.
In addition to his latest arrest, Trafficante has more than a dozen convictions in Suffolk and Nassau counties in recent years, including a robbery in 2020. , according to officials,
Since deciding to move to Manhattan earlier this year, he has racked up more than a dozen collars and stolen about $13,000 worth of stylish accessories from the chic retail giant, officials said.
“He’s been arrested all over Manhattan,” one disgruntled Manhattan law enforcement official told the Post.
Police arrested Trafficante on Tuesday during his sixth attempt to sell items worth $38 to $48 each at the Broadway store.
He was videotaped removing items from the display, including bags, with a total value of about $790, according to the complaint. He then allegedly walked past the cash register and disappeared into the street.
Previously, on March 5, Trafficante snatched more than $1,000 worth of merchandise from a store at 592 Fifth Avenue.
And that happened just six days after he robbed about $700 worth of items from a store at 520 Broadway — the same vendor he robbed on Tuesday.
“He’s focused on bags,” one source said. “He had his six performances on Broadway 520.”
In fact, police are investigating whether Trafficante is actually part of a shadowy Manhattan criminal organization that recruits would-be thieves to rob hapless retailers in exchange for drugs, sources said. Told.
The goods they brought in were later sold on the black market.
Officials say police were tipped off to a wide-ranging athleisure brand black market scheme between January and March after arresting three people who provided information about the fencing operation.
One of the suspects confessed to police that he stole the drugs on behalf of a middleman who was directing others to steal items in exchange for drugs.
Law enforcement officials say police are on the lookout for a person who was shoplifting large quantities of Lululemon merchandise and selling it in Washington Square Park, several blocks away from the known fencing site on McDougal Street. That’s what it means.
In January, police discovered another fence in Manhattan’s Chinatown, officials said. There, a person was seen purchasing stolen Lululemon merchandise at Mott and Grand streets.
All of this came just a week after the Post’s revelations about Manhattan’s underground shoplifting economy, which is costing retailers hundreds of millions of dollars.
“This is not a survival crime,” one source said. “No kid is starving for a $40 athletic yoga waist pack or a Lululemon backpack.”
