Police from the 102nd Precinct are looking for a woman who was caught shoplifting by a worker at a Kew Gardens variety store and put up a fight.
Police say the brawl broke out inside the 99 cents store at 120-20 Queens Blvd. at 1:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 12, when an employee saw the suspect removing merchandise from the shelves and attempted to exit the shop without paying.
When the perpetrator was approached by the 47-year-old woman who caught her in the act, the unidentified woman punched the victim multiple times in the head and kicked her in the stomach before running out of the store onto Queens Boulevard, police said. The value of the stolen merchandise was approximately $58. The shoplifter was last seen running northbound on Queens Boulevard toward the Grand Central Parkway.
EMS responded to the location and transported the injured worker to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she was listed in stable condition.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect. She has a light complexion and black hair and was wearing a black T-shirt, black and gray camouflage yoga pants and two different sandals, one white and one black.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are confidential.
Through Aug. 17, the 102nd Precinct reported 200 felony assaults so far in 2025, twenty fewer than the 220 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 9.1%, according to the most recent CompStat report. Robberies are also down in the precinct with 86 reported so far this year, 22 fewer than the 108 reported at the same point in 2024, a decrease of 20.4%, according to CompStat.
