Meet the shameless serial shoplifter who is still waltzing free down NYC store aisles despite a staggering 254 arrests.
Anthony White, 63, who has made larceny a career, was busted as recently as May on burglary charges after being paroled from prison on parole in December.
The thief was allegedly ripping off stores where he had already been banned for theft — but was set free by judges after his arraignments on the latest offenses, court records show.
Rampant shoplifting like White is accused of has prompted stores across the city to lock their goods behind plastic barricades.
While the number of offenses has dipped 10% so far this year over last year, the crime has surged 89% to more than 27,705 incidents this year from 14,286 in 2020, police data show.
Critics and cops complain that the petty thieves are routinely released back to the street as soon as they’re arrested, stymying the NYPD’s attempts to return the offense to pre-2020 levels, police sources said.
There were 1,288 criminals responsible for 45% of all shoplifting incidents, according to NYPD data obtained by The Post.
The top four recidivists alone have 795 arrests among them, mostly for shoplifting, police sources said.
The NYPD blames the problem on a lax criminal justice system that keeps trying to get the culprits — often dogged by drug addiction — into treatment programs that don’t stick, creating a cycle of criminality.
“They keep getting out and going back and shoplifting again,” said a cop, who has arrested some of the five-finger discount offenders.
In one alleged theft on May 15, White walked into iconic 30 Rockefeller Plaza around 3 p.m., swiped two shirts from displays and shoved them under his sweatshirt, according to a criminal complaint.
He then strolled past the registers and tried to leave the store without paying, prosecutors said. Security found the shirts on him.
He was arraigned on petty larceny charges the next day.
Prosecutors asked for $3,000 cash or $60,000 bond, but Judge Kacie Lally set him free on supervised release, a spokeswoman said.
He struck again a little more than a week later on May 25, ripping off a Duane Reade that he had hit before at 711 Third Ave. in Midtown, according to prosecutors.
This haul at 7:30 a.m. included body wash and assorted personal care products, police sources said.
Four days later, White went into Walgreens at 1251 6th Ave. in Midtown on May 29 and tried to make a dash with baby wipes, authorities said. He had already been banned from the store.
On May 30, prosecutors requested $20,000 cash bail or $60,000 bond, but this time Judge Loius Nock set him free on supervised release.
In their bail application, prosecutors pointed out that White had multiple pending felony theft cases and that he was on parole for a 2023 burglary conviction, according to a spokeswoman. He was released from prison in December 2024. Two months after he was sprung, he snatched 11 toothbrushes from a Walgreens in Midtown, prosecutors said.
“When is enough enough?” a second police source said. “He’s got 254 arrests. This is probably a guy who should be locked up for a long time.”
Another robbin’ hood is Davaghn Gethers, who has been arrested a whopping 235 times, mostly for shoplifting, police sources said.
His most recent arrest was on May 27 for thieving in Midtown. He was released the same day without bail.
He’s also been arrested for resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and weapons possession, the sources said.
A police source who knows Gethers said the thief is nonchalant when he’s nabbed.
“He just says, ‘I don’t care,” the source said. “‘They’re just going to let me go.’”
Laron Mack, 53, is a larceny recidivist with 203 arrests, police sources said.
He was last arrested on June 28 at a Duane Reade on the Upper West Side for allegedly swiping four rolls of tailet paper, police sources said.
Another top offender, Jacob Poole, who identifies as a woman, has 103 arrests under his belt for shoplifting in Manhattan, police sources said.
On April 30, Poole, 32, shoved $215 worth of chicken in a bag and walked out of the Tin Building in the South Street Seaport without paying.
“I have a weapon and I will kill you,” Poole allegedly told a worker.
Two weeks earlier, on April 15, he stole from 10 different businesses in one day, sources said.
“They do the same thing over and over again and they get out,” said a third police source who knows some of the top offenders. “There’s no rehabbing them.”
