Report: New York City Shops Protect Ice Cream Pints with Anti-Theft Lids as Crime Rises 

A supermarket in New York City is protecting $6 ice cream cartons with bolted plastic tops to prevent shoplifters from stealing them this summer, the New York Post reported.

The Upper West Side’s Fairway supermarket is protecting its Häagen-Dazs pints with locked lids that can only be removed with a device at the cash register. The theft prevention lids are to “help maintain the lowest possible cost,” according to a sign posted in the market’s freezer section.

“To help maintain the lowest possible cost, a protective lock has been placed on some units of ice cream,” the sign reads. “This lock will be removed at checkout by a store associate. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

The supermarket’s move to lock its ice cream lids comes as shoplifting races soar across the city. There were 13,738 retail thefts reported in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 8,750 during the same period in 2019, according to New York Police Department data.

There have also been multiple ice cream-related thefts across New York City over the past several years.

As the New York Post detailed:

Last year, a serial ice cream thief was busted after strolling out of the upscale Morton Williams market at East 22nd Street and Park Avenue South with 20 pints of Haagen-Dazs, according to police.

In 2016, four suspects also snatched at least 1,249 frozen treats — including tubs of Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s — from chain stores such as Duane Reade and CVS during a 10-month period, the New York Times reported.

It got so bad that billionaire supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis even offered a $5,000 reward for information on a gang of crooks stealing ice cream — including a couple who stuffed 80 cartons into four bags and bolted from Catsimatidis’ Gristedes shop in Chelsea.

A shopper in the Fairway supermarket told the New York Post the bolted ice cream lids are a sign of the times.

“This is the age we live in now, unfortunately. This is the New York that we know,” the shopper said. “This has nothing to do with anything other than people coming in and ripping off places that are trying to make money.”

Another Manhattan store, Duane Reade at Broadway and 71st Street, also protected its ice cream freezer door with a padlock, the Post reported.

Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.