Teens Charged With $27K Purple Caper

How do you make off with tens of thousands of dollars worth of jeans and hoodies from a store?

It helps to have four friends with you — and to shop Purple.

That appears to have been the case with a heist that occurred at the Sneaker Junkies store across from the Green at 976 Chapel St.

Police recently arrested a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old for allegedly participating in an overnight theft of $27,000 worth of jeans, boxers and shirts grabbed from the racks of the store last May 30.

Detectives Michael DeFonzo and Jessica Stone spent months investigating the incident with the help of patrol officers as part of a broader response to a spike in downtown retail and car thefts, which almost doubled in 2023, according to top downtown cop Lt. Brendan Borer.

“The spike in crime we’re experiencing is from a small percentage of repeat juvenile offenders,” Borer said. Sneaker Junkies alone has been burglarized three times, he said.

Five masked people were recorded on store surveillance video entering the Sneaker Junkies store between midnight and 12:30 a.m. on May 30, according to an arrest report written by DeFonzo. They didn’t mess with the cash register or with sneakers. Instead they raided the clothing racks and exited with what the owners later estimated were $27,000 worth of clothes.

The thieves didn’t need to swipe as much clothing as you might think to run up a $27,000 haul. They preferred Purple, a luxury denim urbanwear brand that isn’t easy to find. The jackets alone can run up $1,000 apiece.

The teens loaded into a stolen white Hyundai — and drove the same night to Providence, R.I. There they allegedly broke into another Sneaker Junkies store and stole another batch of Purple brand clothing, according to the arrest report.

Both stores are owned by Mazen Najjar and Bilal Jaber. They did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

The detectives eventually tracked down the two arrestees with the help of video and interviews as well as patrol officers’ leads. At the home of one arrestee, Stone found him wearing some of the clothing and recovered more of it on the premises. One arrestee posted an Instagram photo in a Purple outfit the morning after the heist.

The teens have been charged with burglary and breaking and entering. Police did not release their names because of their age.

Borer did say the arrestees have already compiled a record of similar crimes. He noted that young teens don’t generally receive long sentences. Police are looking for the other alleged accomplices.

“It’s not a simple solution to get these kids back on track,” he observed.

Meanwhile, the Purple was still flying off the racks at Sneaker Junkies Monday — albeit legally.

Musician Tee Doe 2x came with a crew, who plunked down $600 for a Purple sweatshirt-sweatpants outfit.

It’s ​“a lot of money,” Tee Doe 2x acknowledged. ​“But it’s fire!”

“My boy’s a rapper,” said a companion who had paid the bill. ​“They gonna know — when they see that, they see money.”