NYPD Detective Caught on Video Stealing Cash During Deli Raid, Owner Says

The NYPD has suspended one detective and reassigned after the owner of a Brooklyn deli said surveillance video from a raid on a Brooklyn deli showed one of the officers pocketing over $2,500 in cash. 

Police had gone into the deli in Bedford-Stuyvesant to look for untaxed cigarettes, and officers put two men in handcuffs and searched behind the counter, video shows. A detective, wearing a dark coat with a gray hood, apparently finds something, looks at the surveillance camera, then tries repeatedly to put the item in his left pocket. 

Store owner Ali Abdullah said the officer was taking $2,650 in cash. 

"It was crazy, honestly," he told NBC 4 New York Thursday. "I was thinking he should give that money to the sergeant, not to his pocket." 

Abdullah, who's owned the store for two years, said he's never been in trouble with the law, and when his employees were arrested, he took inventory. He said police showed him a receipt for other money seized during the raid, but then the store owner noticed his rent money was gone.

Abdullah assumed at first it was a co-worker but he watched the surveillance video and saw the plainclothes detective take the money, he said. 

"I see this guy stealing the money. He was stealing the money and putting it in his pocket," he said. 

The NYPD said in a statement: "Based on the nature of the allegations in this incident, in addition to the video provided to us, the NYPD has placed one detective on suspension and one supervisor on modified assignment status pending further investigation into the matter."

Michael J. Palladino, president of the detectives union, said "because the investigation is ongoing, it is inappropriate to make a statement at this time."  

A woman living at the address listed for the detective told NBC 4 New York Thursday night he had nothing to say. 

Abdullah maintains nothing illegal was happening inside his store. He said he just wants his money back and justice to be served.

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