A Brooklyn woman says she was arrested, handcuffed and held for seven hours in a Bushwick precinct after police accused her of stealing rugs that she thought had been discarded and left on the street, up for grabs.<\/p>\n
Jocelyn Ullman was arrested on July 15 after police got a call from Chyelle Milgrom, who said someone had taken $4,300 worth of rugs from in front of her namesake vintage store and cafe, Chyelle. But Ullman says she was ultimately let go without charges, and told her mugshot and fingerprints would not be kept on record.<\/p>\n
Ullman says she never imagined she\u2019d find herself in custody. The rugs\u2019 rightful owner says she regrets ever getting police involved \u2014 setting off a chain of events that included the NYPD sending surveillance images of Ullman to local media, asking for the public\u2019s help investigating a grand larceny, and several New York-area media outlets obliging with stories based on the announcement. And the NYPD says it was just doing its job by investigating a report of a felony.<\/p>\n
To Ullman and Milgrom, the whole thing was a regrettable mess \u2014 a spiral of unfortunate events that began with a flood at Milgrom\u2019s store, continued into a misunderstanding and wasn\u2019t over for either woman well after Ullman was out of custody. But the case highlights the legal grey area at the center of one of New York City culture\u2019s most ingrained practices: stooping.<\/p>\n
Another woman\u2019s trash?<\/p>\n
Ullman, who is an interior decorator, told Gothamist she thought she\u2019d found another person\u2019s trash when she found sopping wet rugs on the sidewalk and front steps of a Bushwick building late in the middle of the night on July 8.<\/p>\n
She said she\u2019d been out stooping \u2014 reclaiming discarded furniture and other items left on the sidewalk (or in New York City, a building\u2019s stoop). When she found the soaked rugs, she said, they looked to her like they\u2019d been thrown away. A video she took at the time shows some rugs had been rolled up on the sidewalk, while others were draped over the railing along the steps leading into the building.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do this very often. It’s a hobby of mine,\u201d she said. \u201cI refurbish things and I love to do it, it’s fun for me. So upon finding these, yes, they were dirty and disgusting, but I knew I could clean them and bring them back to life, so I was so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
I woke up one day to multiple friends sending me the news report.<\/p>\n
Jocelyn Ullman<\/p>\n
Ullman said she was determined to give the rugs another life, thinking they\u2019d be perfect for one of her clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually made my client buy a steam cleaner to steam clean them, dried them, and did, like, a whole rebirth of these rugs, and then a full week went by before I woke up one day to multiple friends sending me the news report,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The NYPD sent media outlets a message with images from a security camera attached July \u2014 an \u201cRMA,\u201d or \u201crequest for media attention,\u201d asking for the public\u2019s assistance in identifying the person depicted in the photos and videos, wanted for grand larceny, for taking $4,300 worth of rugs. One shows Ullman taking a photo of a rug with her phone. Another shows her looking over a rug draped on a railing.<\/p>\n
A Facebook reel<\/a> by a News 12 reporter tells the audience: \u201cImagine dealing with flooding at your small business just to have someone steal from you a couple of hours later.\u201d Other NYC-area media ran their own stories<\/a> based on the police plea for attention, and Reddit threads drew more attention to the case. Ullman said she worried about her reputation.<\/p>\n The second they put the handcuffs on me, I was just sobbing.<\/p>\n Jocelyn Ullman<\/p>\n \u201cI was mortified,\u201d Ullman said.<\/p>\n She said she reached out to an attorney, and decided that she would get the rugs back from her client and refund her, and the following morning, she would surrender herself at the precinct with the rugs.<\/p>\n \u201cI was put in handcuffs. I had a mugshot taken. I was fingerprinted,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve never been arrested. It was horrible. The second they put the handcuffs on me, I was just sobbing.\u201d<\/p>\n Ullman said she was led to a room, where she remained for around seven hours while waiting to be processed, before being released.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mother had passed from an assisted suicide because she had a massive stroke, and she was a prisoner in her own body, and I just, I broke down at about hour five,\u201d she said. \u201cLike, I’m just having a small taste of this, and how horrible it must have been for her to have gone through that.\u201d<\/p>\n The NYPD didn\u2019t comment on the particulars of Ullman\u2019s account. But a statement from a spokesperson said the department had received a complaint for a grand larceny and \u201cwe did our job to investigate the complaint.\u201d The spokesperson said Ullman wasn\u2019t mistreated, and referred further questions to the Brooklyn district attorney\u2019s office, which declined to comment, saying the case was sealed.<\/p>\n Ullman said she wishes the rugs\u2019 owner would have just posted about the missing items on social media.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI just wish that she had gone to the community asking for her rug back opposed to bringing the NYPD into a Black and brown community and involving news outlets,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cBushwick is smaller than you think. It could have easily gotten back to me, and I would have happily returned the rug to her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rugs\u2019 owner\u2019s regrets<\/p>\n The owner of the vintage store, Chyelle Milgrom, told Gothamist she also now wishes she hadn\u2019t involved police. Milgrom said she was \u201chorrified\u201d to learn that Ullman had been arrested.<\/p>\n Milgrom said the day she put the rugs out, her store and cafe had flooded after an appliance that carbonates water malfunctioned overnight. Milgrom said she spent the day cleaning up the mess, including rolling up the rugs and putting them outside while she removed a half-inch of water from the space. Milgrom said she also learned her neighbors\u2019 business had also been damaged. A friend who owns a different cafe warned her about the possibility of mold growth after a flood, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI kinda made a decision when I left at midnight, which was risk leaving the rugs out on the porch and outside the store, or leave them inside and risk increasing the humidity and the risk of mold,\u201d she said. Milgrom said she didn\u2019t think anyone would take wet, heavy rugs.<\/p>\n But the rugs weren\u2019t there in the morning.<\/p>\n Milgrom said she asked her landlord for the security footage from the front of the building. In texts shared with Gothamist, the landlord said he’d pull the footage at the police department’s request if she filed a report with them, or he could refer Milgrom to the camera vendor to retrieve it for a fee. He said he thought that would be $250. <\/p>\n \u201cThat’s kind of what initiated filing the police report, it wasn’t my first instinct at all,\u201d she said. \u201c\u200aI didn’t think that they would take this seriously. \u2026 I thought they would file a report, and that would be the end of it, and I would, I guess, have the police report number, and give that to the management, and they would pull the security for me.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to press charges or have anyone arrested, especially if they come forward voluntarily<\/p>\n Chyelle Milgrom in texts to an NYPD detective<\/p>\n Milgrom said when she saw the footage, she believed the person taking the rugs likely thought they\u2019d been discarded \u2014 but added seeing the person go up the stoop steps made that seem \u201cdebatable.\u201d But she said she wasn\u2019t told the footage would be shared with media outlets, or that police were intending to charge the person with a felony.<\/p>\n In a text to the detective on July 15, she asked if there was any way the case could be closed if her property was returned.<\/p>\n \u201cMy priority is just recovering my items, I don\u2019t want to press charges or have anyone arrested, especially if they come forward voluntarily,\u201d she texted the detective.<\/p>\n The next morning, the detective texted her that he had her rugs. The detective asked Milgrom to come in to sign the paperwork, confirming she didn\u2019t want to press charges against Ullman. Milgrom said she didn\u2019t know police had put Ullman in handcuffs and were holding her, and only found out when Ullman told her in person later on. Milgrom apologized to Ullman for the ordeal.<\/p>\n Milgrom said she\u2019s been facing blowback online: In comment sections of social posts and on Reddit threads, people speculated she left the rugs out as part of a plot to commit insurance fraud, or called her \u201cstupid\u201d for leaving the rugs out overnight. Her store\u2019s rating on Google tanked after it received dozens of one-star reviews.<\/p>\n Milgrom posted a statement to her store\u2019s Instagram story, telling followers that she regretted ever involving police, and apologizing for what Ullman had been through.<\/p>\n Stooping? Or stealing?<\/p>\n Stooping is a common practice in New York City. But according to Steven Wasserman, an associate law professor at John Jay College and retired Legal Aid Society public defender, it\u2019s one that has landed plenty of people in similar situations to Ullman\u2019s ordeal.<\/p>\n