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I stole a car in Queens and then crashed it into a KFC. The owner of the car is still inside, CBS 2's Jenna DeAngelo is joining us now live in Kew Gardens with our top story, Jenna. Well Dana, we're in front of the KFC where that happened, I want to give you a look at the damage here. As you can see, the giant hole in the front of the restaurant shattered glass all over the sidewalk and employees of the restaurant have been working to clean up the damage. Now police have just moved the car from the building onto the street. Video from Chopper 2 shows the car lodged into the restaurant at the corner of Union Turnpike and Parsons Blvd. Police say it all started when a suspect tried to steal items from nearby stores. Welcome to another episode of TGN, the podcast where we talk about topics that affect the community and our daily lives. Here we discuss real topics and real problems that affect everyone. Today on our podcast, I'm your host, Zee Prasad, who will talk about shoplifting. The audio you just listened to is just a brief summary of a regular day at work when a normal case of shoplifting took a turn for the worse. Today we are going to discuss how shoplifting affects the community, your pockets, the people who shoplift and ultimately the businesses, how you're impacted, not forgetting the people who actually work in those businesses. So a lot to discuss and we'll get right into our podcast. There are many methods of shoplifting, but today I want to focus on two major methods. The first one is collaborative shoplifting, which involves multiple individuals. And then the second one I want to talk about is walking out. This is where the individual walks in, either with a large bag or briefcase sometimes, or a shopping cart and they just walk in, conceals or fills it up with as much as they can carry and then exits the premises without paying. So those are the major areas that I want to really focus on. We're not just talking about the regular shoplifter that just walks in, steals a piece of bread or something to eat with a soda and just leave, or you know, kids stealing candy. We're talking about organized crime, the type where the stuff gets stolen from the store and ends up on a major online platform like Amazon or Ebay and then those parties involve profits while the retailers end up filing for bankruptcy or something like that. Welcome back again to the second part of our podcast. Now when I say collaborative shoplifting, what comes to mind? Well, from what I understand based on being from the retail environment, it's really organized crime. This is where you have a group of three to five individuals who walk into a store and one would try to distract the cashier while the other scouts the store and try to distract other employees so that the rest of the group can fill up as much merchandise as they can and then exit the building. Police are constantly being threatened by shoplifters and some of them take public transportation. Many of these individuals who shoplift usually escape the police by jumping on an MTA bus. This is a big issue because police tend to stop these buses during a canvass. This is what the police call it when they drive around and try to find these individuals. Then there's the trauma experienced by individuals who are caught in the middle. Picture your old grandma in a store getting some body lotion and then two or three individuals walk in with masks. Then they proceed to the aisle where your grandma is. They don't say anything to her and she is scared so she doesn't say anything to them. Then they would fill up whatever they need and leave before the cop gets there. Now picture the same scenario where your grandma is just trying to do the right thing by notifying the store employees that someone is stealing to call the cops. Do you think she might be in some kind of danger? I think so because a lot of these individuals sometimes have weapons and you never know when they might be desperate to use it. Now how does it affect the store and the community? Now think about the last time you visited a store. You need a key to get toothpaste. You need a key to get infant's formula. If you need beer, ice cream or even detergent, you need to wait for an employee to get it for you. Now this is what it's come to. It's at the point where nothing is accessible anymore and everything is locked up. Then these customers, because of accessibility, decide to shop on Amazon, you know, a credible retailer. However, the merchandise they're paying for had been stolen from either their neighborhood store and is being resold on Amazon. Well that wraps up our podcast for today. Again this is Tulsi Prasad from Did You Know, the podcast where we discuss real topics that affects real people in our communities. Now join us again next week for another great topic. We will be talking about the conditions in the subway and what it means for you as a New Yorker to ride the subway daily. Now if you like our podcast and would like to leave additional comments, please visit our page at www.didyouknow.com. Until next time, I am your host Tulsi Prasad. Have a great day.

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