After the Robberies

Home Brooklyn Life After the Robberies
After the Robberies
The owner of a deli grocery store that has recently been robbed says he is not afraid to keep working in East Flatbush.
Selh Alnaqezb, owner of a deli grocery store that has recently been robbed says he is not afraid to keep working in East Flatbush. (Gregoire Molle/The Brooklyn Ink)

“The guy comes in,” Selh Alnaqezb said. Then, the guy walks towards the employee at the counter. “He showed him the gun, like this,” Alnaqezb said, pointing his finger toward an imagined employee. Then, he said, the man with the gun said, “Everybody put the hands up,” and everybody put their hands up. The man behind the counter laid down while the robber took all the money in the cash register, “almost $300,” Alnaqezb said. For five years he has been the owner of the Five Stars Express Deli grocery store, a shop located on Glenwood Road, in East Flatbush.

Alnaqezb’s deli is one of five businesses within a two-mile radius, in Flatbush and East Flatbush, which were robbed recently—between October 14 and November 19— according to the NYPD. The police believe that one man is connected to each of these robberies. In a December 3 email, which had a video of the man attached, the police asked for the public’s assistance in locating this “suspect wanted in connection with six commercial robberies that occurred within the confines of the 67 and 70 Precincts.” The suspect was still on the run when the email was sent, though it’s hard to know if the investigation has made progress since then, because the NYPD didn’t answer multiple requests for information from The Brooklyn Ink.

Still, despite the robberies, all of which used a firearm, the owners of the shops and their employees don’t seem too worried. For one thing, even though robbery complaints have gone up by 12.1 percent since 2009 in Precinct 67, the longer trend depicts a brighter picture. Since 1993, robbery complaints have decreased by 73.30 percent in Precinct 67, and by 85.6 percent in Precinct 70, according to the NYPD.

The police wrote in the email that one man was suspected for six recent armed robberies, even though in at least one of them, at Kevin Nails, two people, not one, threatened the clients and employees of this shop. Along with Five Stars Express Deli, and Kevin Nails, the other shops robbed were Yan Nails, and two other deli grocery stores.

On Wednesday, December 10, in the afternoon, Kevin Nails was very quiet. Employees were taking care of the three or four clients. A few weeks before, on November 5 the atmosphere was far more animated. Two men came at about 7.30 or 8 p.m., as employees were about to close the shop, Jennifer Cheng, who works at Kevin Nails, remembered. One of the men opened the door and shouted, “The money—Give the money,” Cheng, who wears a pink hoodie, said. They did take the money, but it wasn’t a big loss, Cheng said: The day had been slow, and there was little money to rob—about twenty dollars, she recalled.

This robbery didn’t discourage Cheng from continuing to work at the place. Her hands joined under a red and white apron, she said that her coworkers are also her friends. “You just need to be careful, you know?” she said.

At Taste of the Tropics, an ice cream shop on Avenue D, a bell rings each time somebody enters, alerting the employees that somebody is coming. You only have to “check, and see what happens,” said M. Hazel, the manager of the shop, who declined to provide his first name. In Hazel’s shop, sellers are separated from clients by the ice cream trays and a Plexiglas door. If the robber has a gun, he better be a good shot, Hazel said, “because if he misses, he’s gonna be in trouble.” Hazel defines himself as a “big guy,” and doesn’t seem afraid to fight back if attacked, though he didn’t mention owning a firearm himself. According to Hazel, the people working in the shop next to him, Yan Nails, were being reckless when they were robbed a few weeks ago (on November 18, according to the NYPD). Yan Nails has a buzzer to alert the staff that clients are coming, but the person working at the time of the robbery left the door open, Hazel said. Besides, there is often only one person to take care of the store, he added.

Jose Cry, manager of El Duende grocery store, on Rogers Avenue, says he has put more employees on duty during shifts, to make them feel more confident, after a man—presumably the same suspect who held up Five Stars, Yan Nails, and Kevin Nails—tried to rob his shop with a firearm. The man left with nothing, even though he had ordered one of the workers to give him the money. “The guy told him to keep his hands up, so he couldn’t do anything,” said Cindy Soto, who works at El Duende. “Stupidity,” she said with a smile.

Soto said she is not afraid when she goes to work. “When I found about it I was like, ‘I am not going back to work,’ but at the same time, you have to work in a place where you know people,” she said. After the robbery, Soto got more company than usual. Men from the neighborhood “come and hang out,” to make sure that “everything is OK,” she said.

Weeks after the robberies, nobody seems to worry a lot. Still, the shops have undergone a few changes. Five Stars Deli used to be open until 2 a.m., but since the robbery, it closes at 12 a.m. From 7 p.m., the door is now locked at Kevin Nails: This gives the employees the time to estimate if a client looks threatening before letting him in. Workers also set up more lights at the front of the store.

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