Sugar Shop Targeted By Teens With Sticky Fingers

Roving groups of teens, at times 40-large, have been taking advantage of a Cobble Hill candy store and pocketing sweets, said owners at .

After opening on Baltic Street in April, —a Willy Wonka-like boutique offering chocolate bars, hard candies and other treats—has been the target of teen shoplifters on multiple occasions in the last few months.

"Since July, we've had groups of teens coming in to the store and stealing," said owner Jennifer Bischoff, who along with her partner Sara Houchins attended the meeting to express their concern. "They continued to come in 4 or 5 at a time, then 10 at a time. It continued to escalate until a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night 40 kids came in at a time, completely took control of the store and stole many items. They were very intimidating and scary to the girl working there."

The incident inspired the shop to hire part-time security guards at a personal expense of $500 a week, owners said at the meeting. One of the guards is a former football linebacker, Andre Young, 23, according to The New York Daily News.

"I feel like I've done everything I was supposed to do," Bischoff told the captain, adding that the store has also installed video cameras. "But I filed a report and there was absolutely no follow-up.

"It happened again recently when four kids came in, Sarah caught them in the act and confronted them," Bischoff recalled. Houchins called 911 but it took 10 minutes for police to arrive, during which time the kids bolted with their stolen treats.

The lack of urgency on the part of the local unit made the owners feel like the real suckers. Responding officers didn't bother to file a new report either, which is a major violation.

Captain Schiff assured Bischoff that the cops who responded to that incident will be reprimanded. But more important to the owners was doing something to prevent kids from striking again.

"I am going to have your address added to a list of locations on our radar," said the captain, adding that a presence should hopefully deter future shoplifting.

Stay with Patch for updates.