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the fourth straight holiday season, the Staten Island Mall in New
Springville will be running digital billboard ads featuring the mugshots
of some of its most notorious shoplifters, in a program run by District
Attorney Daniel Donovan. For the fourth straight holiday season, the Staten Island Mall in New Springville will be running digital billboard ads featuring the mugshots of some of its most notorious shoplifters, in a program run by District Attorney Daniel Donovan.
"It’s a deterrent," Donovan said of the program today. The video is meant to send potential thieves a message — if you’re caught shoplifting, "it’s a serious crime and we’ll prosecute it."
"For the little benefit they’re going to gain by sticking something in their pockets or their coats, they’re going to pay a pretty penalty," Donovan said.
The digital ads feature five mugshots this year, and in each case, the face pictured belongs to someone who has been convicted in a shoplifting case from the Mall, Donovan said.
"These are people with multiple convictions for theft, for petit larceny," Donovan said.
One woman featured has been arrested 138 times under several names, and convicted 66 times, he said. She’s been banned from the Mall for life, he said.
The mall has barred about 270 people, some temporarily, others permanently, for a variety of reasons, though mostly for theft, according to Donovan.
Though the Mall typically sees the "same amount of incidents every year" in regards to shoplifting, the billboards still serve as a deterrent, said James M. Easley, the Mall’s senior general manager.
"It’s a very positive, long-term approach," Easley said, particularly since young customers can see, year-after-year, the mugshots of people they shouldn’t emulate.
He said he’s seen customers point to the billboards and tell their children, "See, you don’t want to be that guy."
Like in previous years, the ads are being paid for not by taxpayer dollars, but by money seized from criminal activities, Donovan said.
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