A violent homeless crowd is plaguing a popular Chelsea coffee shop — repeatedly attacking customers and each other with chairs and tables, the store’s management said.
Think Coffee manager Matt Fury told cops yesterday that he’s concerned with a lack of police response to his company’s 8th Avenue location, near 14h Street, where 911 calls are constant.
“One [homeless person] has thrown a chair once, one has hit someone, one has thrown a table,” Fury, 40, told NYPD brass yesterday at a Sixth Precinct community meeting.
“It always ends in violence.”
The manager said sometimes, when he called police, NYPD either didn’t respond or officers at the scene didn’t “take the matter seriously.”
“We opened a year ago and the problems started immediately, where different people who hang out on the corner started asking for ice, asking for cups,” Fury said.
“But as we became less tolerant they became more aggressive about not wanting to leave,” he added. “We are really surprised at how often the [911] calls were just not answered. I went to the precinct and the cop at the desk showed me the list of 19 unanswered calls.”
Several patrons and homeless people have been taken away in ambulances, according to Fury.
“One time the police officer said he would arrest me if I didn’t stop bothering him,” he charged.
The precinct’s commander, Deputy Inspector Brandon Delpozo, acknowledged the homeless community near Think Coffee has been problematic.
He added his officers are working to control the situation.