Home Depot shops look to safety to maintain migrants at bay

Metro

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By Georgia Worrell and Tina Moore

A New York Home Depot has deployed a guard canine — and different shops could also be shut behind — to guard consumers from aggressive migrants and thieves flooding their parking heaps, The Post has realized.

Two males carrying MSA Security caps and bulletproof vests with a German Shepherd in tow patrolled the Home Depot in New Rochelle on Tuesday.

“It’s more about omnipresence,” one guard stated, explaining that the corporate was contracted just a few weeks in the past. “It’s not like we let them go bite anyone or anything.”

The guard stated the shop employed them for a variety of causes.

“It’s not just because of [migrants]but because of a myriad of other things too, like people breaking into cars, that kind of stuff,” he stated.

The guarded New Rochelle lot was quiet and no migrants loitered there when The Post visited this week, nevertheless, seven miles away in Throggs Neck, The Bronx, at the very least 30 male migrants hovered on the doorways of Home Depot.

Some have been day laborers merely attempting to “shape” for work with native contractors.

But many others aggressively confronted consumers, attempting to promote them phony Apple Airpods or soliciting suggestions for lifting gadgets from procuring carts into vehicles — even when uninvited.

“You come out and you’re a woman by yourself, they literally leech onto your wagon, and you’re like ‘No, I don’t need any help,’” one employee stated. “And when they’re following you to your car, it’s unnerving.”

She stated a feminine supervisor noticed one of many males washing his privates with a water bottle within the lot, and that a number of girls have referred to as customer support to complain that migrants robbed them of handbags or telephones.

She’s seen the variety of grifters within the lot swell because the migrant inhabitants in New York City explodes.

“I came to work one day and there had to be 100 guys out here,” she stated. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!’”

A daily buyer on the retailer, who requested to be recognized solely as Cheryl, stated she and her husband had a daunting encounter final month.

A person “practically runs over and he goes to point like, ‘Can I take the stuff,’ and my husband said ‘No, thank you,’” she recalled, noting that they solely had a few bins and a paint scraper.

“He’s still keeps following, like on top of us,” she stated. “I said ‘No, thank you.’”

When her husband circled to open the automobile door, the person “put his hand” on one of many bins of their cart. .My husband stated ‘Don’t contact something.’”

But the person didn’t cease.

“So I held up my pepper spray and I yelled ‘He said don’t touch,’” she recalled.

“And all of a sudden he goes ‘Oh, you don’t have to yell at me.’ . . . but he started looking like he was getting angry. So we just hurried up and jumped in the car.”

She referred to as Home Depot’s Atlanta headquarters to complain however acquired “the brush off,” she stated. A regional supervisor then instructed her they have been engaged on bringing safety dogs to 2 Bronx shops.

Customers ceaselessly complain concerning the crush of migrants, stated LaurieAnn Masciocco, who works within the retailer’s customer support division.

“It’s come to the point where they’re invading personal space, touching people’s belongings, just harassing,” she stated. “I get it, you’re trying to make a buck. But when it becomes aggressive and harassing there’s a major issue.”

Her husband went 4 miles away to the Pelham Gardens location in The Bronx earlier this month and he acquired mobbed there too, she stated.

One 52-year-old Mexican nationwide, Jimeno, who has lived in The Bronx since arriving within the United States 20 years in the past, was on the Throggs Neck retailer in search of professional work from contractors.

“There are a lot of people who have been coming here for a lot of years . . . asking people for jobs in construction and if they need help with projects,” he instructed The Post in Spanish. “We come here to find work.”

He stated the recent arrivals who aggressively solicit for suggestions have made it tougher for the day laborers to search out work.

“This affects us a lot, because now people don’t want to communicate with us because they’re scared,” he stated. “They confuse us with them.”

One migrant on the Throggs Neck location, who stated he was from Senegal, instructed The Post he makes about $300 a day, charging $10 each time he helps a buyer push their cart or transfer their purchases into their car.

Home Depot company spokeswoman Margaret Smith stated the corporate prohibits loitering and solicitation at its shops and frequently works with legislation enforcement. She wouldn’t say if the Bronx shops will add safety, together with dogs.

“While we can’t go into specifics about our security measures,” she stated, “it’s not unusual for us to use third-party security at various stores across the country.”