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WNYC
Stooping or Stealing? How a Late Night Street Find Landed a Brooklyn Woman in Handcuffs
18 minutes Posted Jul 24, 2026 at 9:16 pm.
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A Brooklyn interior designer says she believed a stack of wet rugs left outside had been discarded. Days later, her face appeared in news reports about a grand larceny investigation, and she spent seven hours at an NYPD precinct before being released without charges. WNYC and Gothamist reporter Catalina Gonella traces how the misunderstanding escalated and where the law draws the line between stooping and stealing.
Photo: Jocelyn Ullman
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