A trio of shoplifters have nearly 300 arrests between them, yet they keep getting sprung to steal again, fed-up cops told The Post this week.
The worst of the bunch is Ian Mullens, a Queens man with 119 arrests under his belt since 2000, including three since June, police said.
Mullens, 49, of Flushing, has been arrested for 15 felonies, 80 misdemeanors and 20 violations. He was let loose after his most recent arrest on June 12 after allegedly ripping off $177 worth of merchandise from a Target in Kips Bay because shoplifting isn’t a bail-eligible crime, officials said. He has been arrested for shoplifting an eye-popping 35 times since 2020 when bail reform was enacted, police sources said.
The other two include:
- Joel Hardy, 38, who has no known address, has been arrested 103 times with 39 felonies, 50 misdemeanors and 14 violations since 1999. He was last busted for assaulting an officer at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on July 31, cops said. He has been busted for shoplifting ten times since 2020.
- Muhsin Freeman, 47, of Jackson Heights, has 54 busts, with 14 felonies and 39 misdemeanors on his record, the majority of them since 2020, when bail reform was enacted, cops said. He was busted in June after allegedly stealing from a Target in Elmhurst 17 different times in two months, court records show. Freeman, who has been busted for petty larceny 29 times since 2020, is currently wanted on a bench warrant for not showing up in criminal court.
“They are the perfect example of what’s wrong with the system right now,” a disgusted NYPD detective told The Post. “This is what police officers are dealing with over and over.”
When Freeman was hauled into Queens Criminal Court July 18 for the spate of 17 alleged thefts at Target between April 7 and June 10, prosecutors asked for a usually high $25,000 bail.
But Queens Criminal Court Judge Edward Daniels, who was appointed by Mayor Adams in April and previously worked for criminal defense group Brooklyn Defender Services, released him. Freeman failed to show up to a July 1 court appearance on the charges, court records show.
“Are we surprised?” a longtime Bronx detective quipped. “At some point, the courts have to realize that you can’t just keep letting people out.”
The Queens District Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Freeman’s case.
“These liberal judges feel like it’s not affecting their community because they don’t live there so this is what’s going to continue to happen,” the detective added.
Equally frustrated are store workers and shoppers– some of whom even blamed the businesses for not doing enough to stop the shoplifters.
Shopper Nilda Marimol thinks Target and other stores should take more responsibility in solving the problem.
“If it was my business, I would be collaborating with a police person and collaborating with the a politician in the neighborhood,” Marimol said. “Since the city’s not helping that much, then Target should do something about it.”
Target — which said retail theft cost it between $700 and $800 million in 2022 — recently instructed store staff to halt bandits who try to flee with items totaling $50, down from the previous sum of $100.
The retail behemoth announced last year the closure of nine stores across four states, including one in Harlem, due to theft.
“These particular stores need more loss prevention officers,” Walgreens shopper Ray Ocasio said. “It’s ridiculous. they need to fix this issue.”
Guards don’t always stop people because they don’t want to have a physical confrontation. In June, a security guard at a Duane Reade in Midtown was stabbed and seriously injured when he tried to stop a shoplifter, police said.
“They don’t want to tangle with these people,” said a Turtle Bay CVS shopper. “They just stay away from them because they don’t want a fight.”
Retail theft in Gotham rose 2.8% to 37,115 reported incidents so far this year from 36,087 at the same time last year, NYPD data show.
“The city needs a better way to hold them responsible,” said Sunnyside resident Liz Segovia, who has seen a CVS and Rite Aid shutter in recent years. “If they just get arrested and released, they’re obviously going to do it again and again and again.”
The NYPD blamed bail reform– which set many non-violent crimes as non-bail eligible offenses, including most cases of shoplifting — and left-leaning judges, “for failing New Yorkers and making our communities less safe by allowing repeat offenders back out onto the streets over and over again.”
“For individuals with histories of recidivism, as well as for criminals who commit violent crimes, judges must be allowed to determine the best way of ensuring that offenders do not victimize anyone else,” the department said.
Paul Guzik, a tourist from California who was picking up sundries this week at a Murray Hill CVS, felt at home on the East Coast.
“It’s the same mess here as it is on the West Coast,” said California tourist Paul Guzik, who was shopping at a Murray Hill CVS. “The same mess, the same problems and the same lack of solutions by Democratic leaders.”
