New York City's 'One-Man Crime Spree' Finally Behind Bars—At Least for Now

With each new day, it seems that America's major cities are doing more and more to ensure that crime does pay. Case in point #34,592: Vincent Traficante, who has dozens of arrests under his belt, was set back on the street each time to keep stealing.

Now, it seems that Tranficante—a "one-man crime spree"—has finally met a judge who is willing to at least see that he puts down some bail before heading out to steal again.

Cops have finally collared a prolific Manhattan retail menace who’s hit Lululemon stores a dozen times since January — including six times at one location, sources said.
“One-man crime spree” Vincent Traficante, 37, has been arrested a dozen times this year with an insatiable taste for raiding Manhattan’s ritzy Lululemon boutiques, law enforcement sources revealed to The Post.
But his crooked caper ended Tuesday inside the famous brand’s store in SoHo, where he was caught red-handed with more than a dozen bags laden with expensive merchandise.

Why was this guy able to rack up such a record of thefts and arrests? Because the city justice system effectively allowed him to do so.

Besides his most recent arrests, Traficante racked up nearly a dozen criminal convictions in Suffolk and Nassau counties over the last few years — including a 2020 robbery that landed him in the clink, sources said.
He’s piled on another dozen or so collars since he decided to move on up to Manhattan earlier this year, sources said, snatching about $13,000 worth of swanky accessories from the chic retail giant.
“He’s been getting arrested in Manhattan left and right,” one frustrated Manhattan law enforcement source told The Post.

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And yet there he was, stealing again. There is some evidence that he's part of a larger crime ring:

In fact, police are looking into whether Traficante is actually part of a shadowy Manhattan crime ring that’s recruiting wannabe thieves to rob the unfortunate retailer in exchange for narcotics, sources said.
The goods they bring in are later sold on the black market, they added.

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It's unclear from the report provided what terms for release Traficante faced, if any, on his previous arrests. It does seem to fit the pattern we see in too many of our major cities in the last few years; arrest, process, slap on the wrist, release with a promise to appear, and then it's off to steal some more. It's baffling that these city's justice apparatchiks don't seem to be able to discern any pattern here; it seems pretty obvious that when you let bad guys get away with being bad guys, essentially without consequences, then they are going to go on being bad guys.

And, protestations by "progressives" aside, almost none of these serial thieves are stealing because they are hungry or have kids who need shoes. They are stealing because it's easy, and because they want to sell their booty to buy drugs, or booze, or whatever—but mostly because there just aren't any consequences to stealing.

People like Vincent Traficante seem to have absorbed that lesson very well, even if the New York judicial system hasn't.