Security was heightened at a Bronx Home Depot after customers recently reported a string of uncomfortable encounters.
The parking lot of the Home Depot in Throgs Neck now has security measures, including guards with guns and K-9 units, according to City Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato.
“Everybody is well aware of the culture here at Home Depot, that we have day laborers just trying to make an honest living, and they just started to feel like it just started to become a little more aggressive,” said Marmorato. “Where people are walking from the store with stuff in their cart, individuals were coming up to them and literally taking stuff out of their carts to help them and they just felt very concerned, very unsafe.”
Marmorato stopped by the Home Depot on Monday to speak with the manager regarding the protections that were added this past weekend. News 12 cameras captured groups of men waiting in the lot of the store, but none were spotted approaching customers.
A Home Depot spokesperson wouldn’t share any specifics about the Throgs Neck location’s security but says it’s common for people to use third parties and that soliciting and loitering at their stores is prohibited.
Marmorato tells News 12 that she will meet with Home Depot representatives, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and members of the NYPD’s 45th Precinct to discuss these new safety measures.