Cobble Hill candy store Sugar Shop has hired two part-time security guards for $500 a week, after a rash of summer robberies. Former football linebacker Andre Young, 23 (pictured, right), is among those standing guard to make sure there are no repeats of an August 25 flash mob where 40 teens swiped Now and Later taffies, Pop Rocks and Nerds, according to The New York Daily News.

The owners of the Baltic Street business, Jennifer Bischoff and Sara Houchins, opened five months ago and never expected the store—which mainly sells high-end $9 chocolate bars and $10.99-per-pound jelly beans and gummies—to become a consistent crime target. Sugar Shop was also part of a July 4th burglary spree where a lone crook broke into several Cobble Hill businesses, including Dominic Cusimano funeral home on Court Street and Picnic baby clothes boutique on Amity Street, taking money and computers, the News reports.

Then came the August throng of shoplifters: Four days after the flash mob, a smaller group of teens visited the store stealing sweets. Troye Pryor, Young’s boss and owner of First Rate security, the firm hired by Sugar Shop, noted, “Times are different. It’s rough out there.”

Bischoff has complained to the 76th Precinct, asking cops to send out more foot patrols: “It’s rare to even see a cop car in this neighborhood. They are heavily watching Red Hook. There are more dangerous crimes happening in Red Hook, but we want to be safe, too.”

(Photo: NY Daily News)

Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7825