DENVER (KDVR) — A grocery store owner on Colfax is fed up with recurring thefts from his shop, including a repeat offender he’s looking to identify through images from his security camera.
Pete Marczyk opened the first Marczyk Fine Foods in 2002, now with two locations here in Denver. At his location on East Colfax, Marczyk said shoplifting is on the rise and his store isn’t the only one on the block that’s been hit.
“It’s kind of like mice in a house,” said Marczyk. “If you see one, you know you have more.”
He said the amount of shoplifters in his store has increased ever since the pandemic.
“Imagine somebody walked up to you, you know, twice a week and pulled 200 bucks out of your pocket,” said Marczyk. “How would you feel? You’d be pretty frustrated.”
In the blocks surrounding Marczyk Fine Foods, Denver Police’s crime map shows four larcenies reported just since September. Marczyk said they have been dealing with a repeat offender, who made off just as he arrived at the store one day.
“I saw a baguette in the middle of Colfax. I walked into the store like guys what happened? Oh, we had a runner,” he said.
Marczyk said that person had also stolen from Moss Pink on the other side of the block and she even attempted to use a stolen check somewhere else.
“When the shopkeeper called the number on the check, it was a woman that had just had her purse stolen out of her car nearby,” said Marczyk.
Shoplifters are taking high-priced items, like meat, that can easily be concealed in a bag or basket. A hit to his store that he said has really hurt.
“We are low, single-digit percentage profit and so, you know, if somebody steals $200 or $300, you don’t have to be Einstein to figure out how many T-bones you have to sell to make up your 3% profit on that,” said Marczyk.
He’s reported the crimes to Denver Police and hopes the public may be able to help identify at least the one person they’ve caught on camera.
“It’s very costly to us, and that’s the issue here, it’s the cost,” said Marczyk.
The person they’re looking for is often wearing a medical mask which has made them difficult to identify. He asks that you contact Denver Police if you have any information on who the person might be.