Pickpocket ring busted at Union Square after 6-week sting
Nine arrests, 212 wallets, one undercover officer who says she was pickpocketed four times in a single afternoon "for research."
Transit police arrested nine people on Saturday evening at Union Square station, ending a six-week undercover operation into a pickpocket ring that detectives say lifted at least 212 wallets, 60 phones and, on one occasion, a trombone.
The ring worked the mezzanine between the L and the 4-5-6 during the evening rush, in teams of three: one to bump, one to lift, one to walk away with the goods. Police say they had been operating since July and had become, in the words of one detective, "very good, which is why we had to get very good too."
The sting
The operation involved six undercover officers who rode the station daily, carrying wallets fitted with trackers. One of them, a 12-year veteran who asked to be identified only by her first name, Dana, said she was pickpocketed four times in one afternoon in September.
"The first time I was annoyed," Dana said. "The second time I was impressed. By the fourth I was taking notes."
“The first time I was annoyed. The second time I was impressed. By the fourth I was taking notes.”
Dana, undercover transit officer
The trackers led police to an apartment in Sunset Park, where they recovered 140 wallets, most of them empty, stacked in shoeboxes labelled by month.
The trombone
The trombone was taken on Aug. 30 from a busker who had set it down to count tips. It was recovered on Saturday, in its case, in the Sunset Park apartment, apparently untouched. The busker, who performs under the name Big Lou, told the Bugle he had "given up on it" and would be back at the station on Monday.
"Six weeks without a horn," he said. "I played a bucket. People were nice about it. It wasn't the same."
The complication
Police say the operation was nearly derailed in its fourth week when a figure in red and blue webbed two of the ring's members to a pillar on the L platform and left before officers could explain that they were, in fact, already following them.
"He meant well, probably," the detective said. "He also webbed one of our wallets. We got it back. It took a while."
The nine suspects were charged with grand larceny and conspiracy. The shoeboxes have been entered into evidence. Transit police say anyone who lost a wallet at Union Square since July should contact the Transit Bureau, and bring a description of the wallet, because there are a lot of them.