Shoplifting in NYC is so bad supermarkets are locking up, installing anti-theft devices on $6 ice cream: ‘This is the age we live in now’

Shoplifters are running so wild in the Big Apple that pints of high-end ice cream now have special locked lids to thwart cold-hearted crooks.The Fairway supermarket on the Upper West Side is guarding $6 cartons of Häagen-Dazs with bolted plastic tops — which can only be removed with a device at the register — as other shops padlocked freezers of the treats.A sign at Fairway gives shoppers the scoop on why there’s now a barrier on the popular summertime sweets.“To help maintain the lowest possible cost, a protective lock has been placed on some units of ice cream,” it reads.

“This lock will be removed at checkout by a store associate. We apologize for any inconvenience.”Customers at the store, at Broadway and 74th Street, called the goodie-guarding gadget a sign of the times.

The Fairway supermarket on the Upper West Side uses locked ice cream lids to stop shoplifters.Robert Miller“This is the age we live in now, unfortunately. This is the New York that we know,” said a producer, who was shopping in the freezer section Friday.“This has nothing to do with anything other than people coming in and ripping off places that are trying to make money.”A cashier told The Post the ice cream is delivered with the clear locked lids already in place, and that they can be popped off with a round plastic device.

“It’s pretty easy to come off with what we use,” the worker said.Other Manhattan stores also had ice cream under lock and key, including the Duane Reade at Broadway and 71st Street, which fastened a chain across a freezer door with a padlock.The convenience store fastened a chain across a freezer door with a padlock to protect tubs of Breyers along with Oreo Cookie ice cream sandwiches and other frozen desserts.“People used to come with garbage bags and fill up the garbage bags with ice cream. Clear out our freezers,” an employee at the shop said.The Duane Reade on East 53rd Street and Third Avenue also began padlocking a freezer to keep thieves from snatching ice cream such as Haagen-Daz and Magnum bars, a worker there told The Post.“We had to put the locks on because people kept stealing our Red Bull and Ice cream out the fridge,” the employee said.The CVS on Second Avenue and 51st Street in Midtown also had built-in locks placed on freezer doors last month, which customers called inconvenient.“Having to wait for an available worker to get my ice cream is a turn off,” one shopper Martin, 53, told The Post. (NY Post)