Lock up shoplifters, not soap: merchants

Shoplifting at city bodegas “is the worst I’ve seen it in my life,’’ a 20-year store owner said on Sunday — the day after The Post reported some shops are so desperate to curb criminals that they’ve put locks and chains on their detergent.

“We’re losing a lot of money, and we have to pay employees only to check, to sit by the door and watch — otherwise, we’re going to lose everything,” said Barbara Trinidad, who owns one bodega in Manhattan and another in The Bronx, while attending a press conference Sunday by a bodega-owners association.

Other owners are moving heavy equipment to block aisles and preventing thieves from fleeing, putting up PlexiGlas, even around candy, and planning to lock up their ice cream, the organization said.

Corner stores across the five boroughs experience “looting” daily, said United Bodegas of America President Fernando Mateo at Sunday’s gathering.

“You’ll notice on some of the aisles the more expensive products are chained up so that people don’t come in and steal them and sell them” Mateo said of Fordham Hill Food on Sedgwick Avenue in The Bronx, which hosted the press conference.

The bodega’s laundry detergent was decked with heavy chains. Detergent is the most expensive item on the shelves, and it’s easy to resell, Mateo said.

The store’s ice-cream refrigerator was empty “because of so much theft,” he said.

Mateo blamed the scourge on a lax criminal-justice system that allows thieves to get off with a desk-appearance ticket instead of being locked up.