Shoppers looted a Nostrand Avenue grocery on Dec. 3 when an SUV plowed through the front of the store.
Witnesses told police that seconds after a white BMW accidentally reversed into the front of Gem Meat Fine Food Supermarket between Avenue D and Newkirk Avenue just after 5 pm, onlookers swarmed in through the store’s unplanned drive-thru window, taking whatever meat, canned goods and perishables they could get their hands on.
“You actually had people coming to rob the store,” witness Mohammad Abdelrazeq told our sister publication, the New York Post.
The looters had gone by the time police and paramedics arrived to help the three actual customers who got trapped under the avalanche of canned goods when the storefront’s wall collapsed.
Police said the SUV driver remained at the scene — explaining to investigators that her foot got stuck on the gas pedal as she backed out of a parking spot.
Supermarket owner Felix Guzman did not return calls seeking comment.
Reach reporter Thomas Tracy at ttracy@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2525.
