After theft of seafood, how do you fence clams?
Delivery driver in New York mystified by apparent crime.
l a t e r, h e re membered a s t r a n ge s e r i e s o f e ve n t s one morning a month earlier — something far-fetched e n o u g h t h a t h e h a s n o t shared it with the police.
“This is where it starts to sound crazy,” he said. “A couple of dudes followed me in a Jeep for the better part of three hours.”
He had noticed the vehicle outside Estela and realized he had seen it earlier that morning, he said. He drove through the Lower East Side to South Street, and the men followed. “I’m burning through some yellow lights, and these guys are going through them, too,” he said.
He rounded the southern tip of Manhattan, drove uptown and parked on North Moore Street. So did they. He took a picture of the Jeep, and the men drove off. He hasn’t seen the men since. He thought then that maybe they were competitors looking to cut in on his customers.
Normally, the weightiest matter on his mind on a given day was what to order at Papaya Dog for lunch. Now all this.
Could the men have been behind the theft that day in Tribec a? And really, why steal seafood?
“I’ve thought about it a lot,” Dickhaut said. “I can’t think of anyplace in Tribeca that’s going to take hot shellfish.”