Madeline Leesman reporting for Townhall
A Home Depot store in New York now has security guards, as well as a guard dog, to protect shoppers from thieves and aggressive illegal aliens.
According to the New York Post, two guards wearing bulletproof vests now patrol the Home Depot location in New Rochelle with a German Shepherd. One of the guards told the Post that the security company was employed a few weeks ago to keep shoppers safe.
“It’s not just because of [illegal immigrants], but because of a myriad of other things too, like people breaking into cars, that kind of stuff,” one of the guards who spoke to the Post said.
Reportedly, the lot at the New Rochelle location was “quiet” when the Post visited. However, at a different location seven miles away, “at least 30 male migrants hovered at the doors of Home Depot,” the report noted (via NYP):
But many others aggressively confronted shoppers, trying to sell them phony Apple Airpods or soliciting tips for lifting items from shopping carts into cars — 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 worker said. “And when they’re following you to your car, it’s unnerving.”
She said a female supervisor saw one of the men washing his privates with a water bottle in the lot, and that several women have called customer service to complain that migrants robbed them of purses or phones.
She’s seen the number of grifters in the lot swell as the migrant population in New York City explodes.
“I came to work one day and there had to be 100 guys out here,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!'”
LaurieAnn Masciocco, who works at the Home Depot customer service department, told the outlet that customers are regularly complaining about illegal aliens at their stores.
“It’s come to the point where they’re invading personal space, touching people’s belongings, just harassing,” she said. “I get it, you’re trying to make a buck. But when it becomes aggressive and harassing there’s a major issue.”
One illegal immigrant told the Post that he was at one of the New York locations seeking 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 told The Post in Spanish. “We come here to find work.”
An illegal immigrant from Senegal told the Post that he makes about $300 a day by charging customers $10 each time he helps them push their cart or haul their purchases into their vehicle.
Home Depot told the outlet that loitering and soliciting are illegal at its stores, but would not specify what measures would be taken to stop it.
“While we can’t go into specifics about our security measures,” the company said, “it’s not unusual for us to use third-party security at various stores across the country.”