Man Steals $1K From Astoria Walgreens As Shoplifting Surges: NYPD

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Police are searching for a man who they say stole over $1,000 from an Astoria drugstore last month.

On the evening of Oct. 20, around 8:30 p.m., a man walked into an Astoria Walgreens located at 33-55 Crescent Street. Once inside the store he walked into the office and took keys from the desk, which he used to open a safe and steal $1,030, according to the NYPD.

The man then ran away down 34th Avenue and hasn't been seen since, said police, who are still searching for him two weeks later.

The theft happened during the same month when drugstore managers in NYC reported that shoplifting was skyrocketing, an issue that is bi-coastal for Walgreens: the store announced the closure of five San Francisco locations in Oct. due to shoplifting.

NYPD officials described the man who stole from the Astoria Walgreens as about 25 to 30 years old, and released a photo of him taken on Wallgreens' surveillance cameras.

He is 5-feet, 10-inches tall, about 150 pounds, and was last seen wearing a blue and white sweater, blue jeans, a black baseball hat, and black and white sneakers, they said.

As of Wednesday, Nov. 3 no arrests have been made and the case remains under investigation, according to police.

Anyone with information about this incident can call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) or submit a tip online or on Twitter.