The theft of frozen lobster tails from BJ’s Wholesale Clubs has reached a boiling point.
Employees are locking up the shellfish in plastic cases to prevent crustacean crooks from making off with them at the discount retailer’s locations in College Point, Queens, and well-heeled Pelham Manor in Westchester.
“That’s just messed up — that’s crazy!” College Point customer Nina Martinez, 33, told The Post of the security efforts.
The tails range between $35 and $42.
“People have no shame, they’ll steal everything that they can,” sniffed dialysis technician Lisa, 23, as she perused the frozen seafood section at the Pelham Manor location.
Many shoppers were shell-shocked to learn the wholesaler had taken a page out of the drug store playbook — with one steamed critic slamming the magnetized anti-theft containers as yet another example of disorder plaguing the Empire State.
“New York is so ghetto that at BJ’s they have their lobster tails locked up,” Bronx influencer Yamilex Bello said in a viral TikTok clip recorded at the company’s Pelham Manor location.
“Like, who’s out here stealing lobster tails. …Who does that?”
The video made waves just as City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democratic mayoral hopeful, hatched a plan to crack down on the Big Apple’s post-pandemic shoplifting scourge — which critics have said was driven by the state’s criminal justice reforms in 2019 requiring judges to cut loose perps for most crimes, including shoplifting and theft.
The progressive Dem proposed an online system enabling stores’ staff to quickly send security camera footage to police to help bust shoplifters; in exchange, retailers would eventually shed the myriad anti-theft guards hindering shoppers from easily accessing everything from ice cream to Spam.
There have been 150 retail thefts through Feb. 9 in the 109th Precinct, which covers College Point, a 70.5% increase over the past five years, according to NYPD data. And across New York City, retail theft has spiked 35.5% so far this year, with 5,911 incidents, compared to five years ago, police data showed.
A veteran employee at the College Point BJ’s said their store began to clam up on unfettered access to frozen lobster tails around three years ago, just as the citywide spike in shoplifting took shape.
Another Queens staffer, who requested anonymity, said thieves filching meat and seafood had been a “huge issue” at the store, prompting additional deterrents such as electronic alarm stickers, which are often slapped on big ticket items like lobster and even oxtail.
The wholesalers’ employees said the plastic cases have helped fend off sticky-fingered clientele, but many customers now gripe about the embarrassment of asking employees for help accessing the opulent purchase.
“It’s sad because if I want to buy it, I have to go through the humiliation of having to find staff to unlock it,” said Inwood resident Marcia Rodriguez, 58.
“Not everyone’s a thief.”
Reps for BJ’s did not respond to a request for comment.
