Supermarket sweep of shame defies the law

CUSTOMERS at the A&N Food Market in Queens are almost entirely Chinese. Shelves are stacked with live eels, turtles and frogs, frozen duck tongue and canned congee. And these exotic goods, like any product sold in every neighbourhood of New York, attract shoplifters.

But A&N Food Market has a unique method of dealing with the problem.

First, suspected shoplifters have their identification seized. Then, they are photographed holding up the items they are accused of trying to steal. Finally, workers at the store threaten to display the photographs and to call the police – unless the accused thieves hand over money.

"We usually fine them $400 (270]," said Tem Shieh, 60, the manager, who keeps track of customers on 30 video monitors in the store's surveillance system. "If they don't have the money, then we usually hold their identification and give them a chance to go get it."

The practice of catching suspected shoplifters and demanding payment is an import from China – whether it is legal in the United States is open to interpretation.

New York State law allows "shopkeepers' privileges" that fall somewhere between the prerogatives of the police and a citizen's arrest. The law also details "civil recovery statutes", by which retailers may use the threat of a civil lawsuit to recover substantial settlements for even minor thievery. But threatening to report that someone has committed a crime can be considered a form of extortion.

Neither the Police Department nor the Queens district attorney's office said any complaints about the practice had been received. But its critics argue that the accused shoplifters are deprived of basic civil rights and the usual assurances in public legal proceedings, like the right to a lawyer and freedom from coercion, and are not being held by adequately trained security officials with proper oversight.

"If a store owner says he'll call the police unless you pay up, that's extortion, that's illegal," said Steven Wong, a community lawyer in Chinatown, sitting in his office above a restaurant on Chatham Square. "And putting up pictures in public, calling someone a thief who has never even been formally charged, that's a violation of their civil rights."

It is unclear exactly how widespread this practice is, and whether threats of arrest are always used, but it is used in certain predominantly Chinese neighbourhoods around the city.

Many accused shoplifters plead poverty. But they usually manage to come up with money to pay their way out of being publicly shamed and arrested, Shieh said, often after calling upon friends and relatives for the cash.

Fears of being deported often colour their panicked responses.

"Two weeks ago, a woman tried to take two bags of grapes worth maybe $10," he said. The woman first said she had no money, but somehow found some. "She came back with eight new $50 bills," Shieh said.

Many of the accused shoplifters are immigrants who have a heightened fear of authority, and they often are in the country illegally, said Jason Sanchez, 24, who has worked as a security guard at several Chinese markets in Flushing, Queens. "They figure they'll be deported, so they'll do anything to get the money," Sanchez said. "Some stores ask for $400, or some ask for $200 – it becomes a negotiation."

Some store owners share their photographs with other stores, or post them in other branches they own. For example, an image in the Chang Jiang market of a man holding up a large stash of live fish in a plastic bag, with the words "Big Thief," can also be seen in several other stores in the area.

"All we can do is put up their pictures and let them know we do something about it," said Sam Lim, manager of the Chung Fat Supermarket in Flushing.

Chung Fat has 100 surveillance cameras. According to a sign in a storage area, first-time shoplifters face a $500 fine (335), and repeat offenders must pay $2,000 (1,300) .

Store officials acknowledge, though, that they are rarely able to collect much money from offenders.

Some of these enforcement policies have recently come under fire. Last month, two Chinese immigrants spoke out after being wrongly accused of shoplifting at the New York Supermarket, a store under the Manhattan Bridge in Chinatown that posts photographs of accused shoplifters next to the cashier, behind the live crabs and eels.

One of those immigrants, Li Yuxin, said that after being accused of thievery, she began weeping in front of a crowd of shoppers.

The other immigrant, Liang Huanqiong, a 60-year-old home attendant, said that false accusations of theft damaged her reputation and caused mental anguish.

The episodes made headlines in Chinese-language newspapers, and store officials apologised to the women and said they would train employees to better recognise thievery and use more sensitivity in approaching suspected shoplifters, the articles reported. Both women are being represented by Wong, who is critical of the practices despite the apparent vagueness of the law.

Richard Hollinger, a sociologist and criminologist at the University of Florida, said a shopkeeper demanding money on the spot was a version of the legal process of civil recovery outside the law.

He said it could veer into extortion, which New York law defines in part as demanding payment by making a person fear he will be accused of a crime or charged with one.

Sanchez, the security guard, said some stores paraded the shoplifting suspect up and down the aisles, announcing the attempted theft to customers. "It is truly the walk of shame," he said.