A Home Depot in New York has hired armed security guards and K-9 units to protect shoppers from aggressive migrants and thieves in the parking lots, the NY Post reports.
According to City COuncilwoman Kristy Marmorato, "Everybody is well aware of the culture here at Home Depot, that we have day laborers just trying to make an honest living, and they just started to feel like it just started to become a little more aggressive."
"Where people are walking from the store with stuff in their cart, individuals were coming up to them and literally taking stuff out of their carts to help them and they just felt very concerned, very unsafe."
Two men wearing MSA Security caps and bulletproof vests with a German shepherd in tow patrolled the Home Depot in New Rochelle on Tuesday.
“It’s more about omnipresence,” one guard said, explaining that the company was contracted a few weeks ago. “It’s not like we let them go bite anyone or anything.”
The guard said the store hired them for a number of reasons.
“It’s not just because of [migrants], but because of a myriad of other things too, like people breaking into cars, that kind of stuff,” he said. -NY Post
A reporter for the Post observed at least 30 male migrants hovering near the doors of the Throggs Neck, Bronx location - with several day laborers aggressively confronting shoppers, trying to sell them fake Apple Airpods or trying to earn unsolicited tips for lifting items from shopping carts into cars.
"You come out and you’re a woman by yourself, they literally leech onto your wagon, and you’re like, ‘No, I don’t need any help,'" said one employee. "And when they’re following you to your car, it’s unnerving."
The employee said that a female supervisor saw one of the men washing his dick and balls with a water bottle in the lot, and that several women have called Home Depot customer service to complain of being robbed by migrants.
"I came to work one day and there had to be 100 guys out here," she told the Post. "And I’m like, ‘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.
A man “practically runs over and he goes to point like, ‘Can I take the stuff,’ and my husband said, ‘No, thank you,'” she recalled, noting that they only had a couple of boxes and a paint scraper.
“He’s still keeps following, like on top of us,” she said. “I said, ‘No, thank you.'”
When her husband turned around to open the car door, the man “put his hand” on one of the boxes in their cart. “My husband said, ‘Don’t touch anything.'”
But the man didn’t stop. -NY Post
"It’s come to the point where they’re invading personal space, touching people’s belongings, just harassing," said Home Depot customer service employee, LaurieAnn Masciocco. "I get it, you’re trying to make a buck. But when it becomes aggressive and harassing, there’s a major issue."
