Professional booster’ notches 100th shoplifting bust — and is released again
Michelle McKelley, 42, was arrested late Saturday for allegedly pocketing $125 worth of goods from a CVS in Lower Manhattan, and then was freed under the state’s soft-on-crime criminal justice reforms.
Prosecutors said in Manhattan Criminal Court Sunday that McKelley has failed to appear in court 27 times on her multitude of past arrests — and has five other pending cases.
But the charges do not qualify for bail under the 2019 state reform, which means prosecutors could only ask that she be let go on supervised release while the case is pending.
Manhattan Judge Charlotte Davidson agreed, noting the charges do not qualify for bail.McKelley, who described herself to cops as a “professional booster,” was last cut loose Thursday after she was charged with stealing from a Duane Reade in East Harlem.
Last month, she was charged with robbing a Rite Aid at Second Avenue and East 96th Street 10 times, with cops at that time reporting it was her 108th arrest. Court officials said the Thursday bust was just her 99th, without explaining the discrepancy.
McKelley is so brazen that when she was arrested in February for allegedly ripping off a Target store on the Upper East Side she bragged that “I haven’t got caught in a long time.”
“I have to get a new outfit,” she said at the time.
According to a criminal complaint filed after she apparently reached the century mark with her weekend arrest, prosecutors said McKelley grabbed bars of cocoa butter, chocolate bars and soap and shoved them in a black duffle back then scurried out of the store.
Cops later tracked down McKelley and took her into custody.
Asked by The Post what else she could do for a living as she left the courthouse, she responded “I would be a caretaker for old people” — which she said was once her job.
“What happened?” she was asked.
“Life,” she answered before walking away.
Additional reporting by Steven Hirsch
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