A New York hardware store is deploying guard dogs to protect shoppers from aggressive immigrants and thieves crowding its parking lot, and it has emerged that other stores may be close behind.
On Tuesday, two men wearing MSA security caps and bulletproof vests patrolled a New Rochelle hardware store with a German shepherd in tow.
“It’s more about ubiquity,” said one security guard, explaining that the company signed the contract a few weeks ago. “We’re not going to let them bite anyone or anything.”
The store hired them for a variety of reasons, the security guard said.
“It’s not just because [migrants]But it’s also caused by a million other things, like people breaking into cars,” he said.
When The Post visited this week, the guarded compound in New Rochelle was quiet, with no migrants wandering around, but 11 miles away in Throgs Neck, the Bronx, at least 30 male migrants were at a Home Depot store. I was loitering at the entrance.
Some day laborers were simply trying to get into shape to work with local contractors.
But many other merchants aggressively confronted shoppers, trying to sell them fake Apple Airpods or asking for tips on how to load items from shopping carts into cars, even when they weren’t invited. .
“You go out and you’re the only woman and they literally hitch a ride on your wagon and you’re like, ‘No, we don’t need help,'” one worker said. “And when they follow you to your car, you get anxious.”
He said a female supervisor saw one of the men washing his genitals with a water bottle on the premises and called customer service to complain that the migrants had taken his wallet and cell phone. There are also several women who have called.
She has seen the number of scammers on the premises soar as New York City’s immigrant population has exploded.
“I came to work one day and there must have been 100 guys there,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Oh my god!’
A regular customer at the store, who asked to be identified only as Cheryl, said she and her husband had a frightening encounter last month.
One man “actually ran up to me and said, ‘Can I take it?’ and my husband said, ‘No, thank you,'” she recalled, adding that they had several He pointed out that all he had was that box and a paint scraper.
“He’s still chasing us, like he’s on top of us,” she said. “I said, ‘No, thank you.'”
When her husband turned to open the car door, the man “placed his hand” on one of the boxes in the cart. My husband said, “Don’t touch anything.” ”
But the man didn’t stop.
“So I held up the pepper spray and screamed, ‘I was told not to touch you,'” she recalled.
“And all of a sudden he said, ‘Oh, you don’t have to yell.’ . . . but he started looking angry. So we hurriedly jumped in the car.”
She called Home Depot’s Atlanta headquarters to file a complaint, but said she was “not heard back on.” Her regional manager then told her that she was working on introducing guard dogs to her two stores in the Bronx.
Laurie Ann Masiocco, who works in the store’s customer service department, said customers frequently complain about the crush of immigrants.
“They’ve gotten to the point where they’re invading people’s personal space, touching people’s belongings, and just plain harassing them,” she said. “I get it, you’re trying to make money. But when it becomes offensive and harassing, you have a big problem.”
Earlier this month, her husband went four miles away to Pelham Gardens in the Bronx, where she said he was also assaulted.
Mr. Jimeno, a 52-year-old Mexican who has lived in the Bronx since coming to the United States 20 years ago, was at the Throggs Neck store seeking permanent work from a contractor.
“There are a lot of people who have been coming here for years… asking people for construction jobs or asking them if they need help with a project,” he told the Post in Spanish. “We’re here to find work.”
He said recent arrivals were aggressively demanding tips, making it difficult for day laborers to find work.
“This is having a big impact on us because right now people are scared and don’t want to communicate with us,” he says. “They confuse us with them.”
One of the immigrants at the Throggs Neck store, who said he was from Senegal, said he makes about $300 a day and charges customers $10 for each time he pushes a cart or helps move purchased items into their cars. he told the Post.
Home Depot corporate spokeswoman Margaret Smith said the company prohibits loitering and solicitation in its stores and regularly works with law enforcement. She declined to say whether security, including dogs, would be added to the Bronx store.
“While we cannot discuss the specifics of our security measures, it is not uncommon for us to use third-party security in our various stores across the country,” she said.
