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New York’s most prolific offender is a notorious thief who has been arrested 101 times for repeated raids on Target and other stores, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Harold Gooding has been busted for dozens of larceny charges – including four heists on the popular department store – since being freed under the city’s lax bail reforms.
The 53-year-old thug already has 15 convictions to his name, as well as 14 failures to show in court following his prolific crime spree.
He has rocketed to number one on the NYPD’s list for repeat offenders following his torrent of thefts but somehow remains on the loose to carry out further raids.
It comes after Mayor Eric Adams, along with cops, released the top ten most prolific offenders in the city, with them making up more than 500 arrests between them.
Out of the 10, a staggering six are not behind bars due to lax bail reforms overseen by woke District Attorney Alvin Bragg since 2020.
It has ramped up huge pressure on lawmakers to crack down on career criminals who continue evade justice and lock them up for good.
Harold Gooding has been busted for dozens of larceny charges – including four heists on the popular department store – since being freed under the city’s lax bail reforms
Crime in NYC continues to soar as more repeat offenders are let out on now-or-low-cash bonds
The mayor (pictured at Wednesday’s press conference) told how the 2020 reforms – ushered in under Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio – made it almost impossible for criminals to be jailed
Gooding, who also goes as Jamel White, has been busted an astonishing 88 times on larceny charges in the last two years but continues to roam the streets of the Empire State.
Out of these, 74 were on petit and grand larceny charges that were all committed in Manhattan, with two pending cases against him for five alleged thefts from Target.
The thug has been convicted 15 times, made up of two violent felonies, one non-violent one and 10 misdemeanors. He is also understood to have skipped court hearings at least 14 times.
Meanwhile he has served time behind bars for robbery and burglary convictions, but continues to evade justice in a cell on Rikers Island due to the states woke bail reform laws.
Gooding topped the list of worst criminals in New York, which was released by Adams and the NYPD on Wednesday.
He was referred to on the document as ‘recidivist number one’ and the mayor and top cops fumed at the fact he remains at large.
Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri said at a press conference: ‘We’ve arrested him 101 times, but how many crimes do you think he really committed? 200? 300? 1,000?’
‘This individual I’m talking about, he has 14 failures to appear. He’s walking around the streets today probably committing another crime as we speak.’
Lipetri was joined by Adams, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell and other police chiefs at a press conference to outline the list on Wednesday.
The mayor told how the 2020 reforms – ushered in under Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio – made it almost impossible for criminals to be jailed.
The former cop said: ‘You have to work really hard to get to Rikers right now. To get there, you did something that is really bad.’
He allowed some of the cops to dish out details on some of the ten offenders but refused to share their names or mugshots with the press because he had to ‘follow the rules’.
Another of them is a burglar who has been arrested 57 times since 2020, and another has assaulted a police officer and failed to show up to court but remains on the streets.
‘He is a crime wave and guess what? He is walking around the streets of New York City, probably out there committing another crime.’
Despite the fact that some of the men have open crime warrants out against them, Adams refused to name them at the press conference. He claimed he was bound by ‘the rules of counsel’.
Number two on the list, who has not been identified, is another career criminal who has been nicked 67 times in the last two years and 96 times in total.
They have been convicted a staggering 44 times but failed to show up to court 26 times to face justice. Ranking at number three is a thug with 18 open cases against their name for theft and burglary and and 55 arrests since 2020.
Fourth on the list, with 22 convictions and 62 arrests, was a person who has been caught by cops 59 times since bail reform and was charged 47 times for thefts in Manhattan.
Bringing in the top five was another serial burglar, who has been arrest 23 times this year alone, with 12 of them coming in Manhattan.
Sixth place managed a whooping 71 arrests for burglary and misdemeanors but remains out on the streets on parole for theft.
The 53-year-old thug already has 15 convictions to his name, as well as 14 failures to show in court following his prolific crime spree
Out of the top 10, a staggering six are not behind bars due to lax bail reforms overseen by woke District Attorney Alvin Bragg (pictured) since 2020
Meanwhile number criminal number seven racked up 33 arrests since 2020, with 17 in Brooklyn resulting in five convictions and six open case. They are also not in police custody.
Eight place is a thug who has 87 arrests in their lifetime – 25 coming in the last two years – as well as 20 convictions for burglary and robbery. They also have a pending sentencing against their name.
The penultimate criminal is a thief with 48 arrests and ten open warrants registered to them. These include 39 since bail reforms and 17 grand larceny charges. Cases include stealing from Sally’s and L’Occitane.
Rounding out the top ten is a thug what has been nicked 39 times in two years, with one of them for assaulting a police office.
Despite the sickening attack, the criminal is still at large, even though they have 13 arrests for grand larceny, 19 convictions and three pending grand larceny auto cases against them.
Others who have also benefitted under the lax bail reform laws – but were not named in the document – including gunman, subway attackers, arsonists and burglars.
Among them is the subway shooter who killed a Goldman Sachs worker on his way to brunch weeks after being granted bail over car theft.
Andrew Abdullah shot and killed Daniel Enriquez in an unexplained attack on the subway on May 19. Weeks earlier, a judge let Abdullah out on no bond, despite him having tried to steal a car.
Prosecutors asked the judge to keep him behind bars on a $15,000 bond but the judge – Leigh Cheng – denied their request, and let him out.
He went on to kill Enriquez on a Manhattan-bound Q train, then handed himself in days later after a fruitless effort by the NYPD.
Another is a criminal who smeared feces on a woman’s face but was let out on bail after attacking someone in a store.
Just one week before the horrifying subway attack, Frank Abrokwa had been arrested for allegedly threatening a hardware store employee with a screwdriver but had been released without bail.
The 37-year-old was also arrested on January 7, for allegedly punching a 30-year-old man on a subway platform at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue and on February 5, for hitting a 53-year-old man at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
But each time, thanks to New York’s lax new bail reform laws, the career criminal did not have to post bail and was released.
A few days after threatening the store employee during a robbery, Abrokwa allegedly lunged at the woman at the East 241st Street subway station on February 21, smearing feces on her face
Meanwhile, last year, Craig Tamanaha set fire to the Christmas tree outside the FOX News studios in New York City. Luckily, no one was hurt.
Weeks before the incident, Tamanaha allegedly flashed outside Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial court and according to a criminal complaint from December.
The 49-year-old has a lengthy criminal record spanning at least 20 years and two states, and he was arrested last month for exposing himself outside the Ghislaine Maxwell trial in the city.
In 2002, the then-30-year-old Tamanaha was picked up in Abilene, Texas, on a public intoxication charge. Between 2017-2018, he was arrested on three occasions and charged with public intoxication, burglary and resisting arrest.
Another who remains freed is Christopher Elder, 31, who was charged with flipping over a three-year-old girl’s stroller in March.
The little girl was being walked in her stroller by her grandmother in the Bronx. She was left with injuries on her face and body and had to be treated in the hospital. It wasn’t the first time he hurt a child.
On December 11 the 31-year-old was charged for throwing a nine-year-old girl on the ground in the same Queens neighborhood, the Post reported.
‘He took away the confidence I had as a woman and a single mother with two kids to go out there. Now I don’t feel comfortable walking alone, like I used to with my kids.
‘I’m constantly watching my back,’ the mom of that alleged December assault told NBC New York. She said she was also hit by Elder when she instinctively shielded her daughter from an attack from the 31-year-old.
Elsewhere, Michelle Kelley, 41, allegedly confessed to authorities she was a ‘professional booster’. ‘Y’all are stopping my hustle’ she told police after her 97th arrest, according to the paper.
Her favorite store was Manhattan’s Upper East Side Target store. McKelly kept her crimes to petit larceny, which is a non-jailable offense after the law went into effect in 2020.
She was finally held on $5,000 bail after her 101st arrest for second-degree assault after she allegedly kicked, bit, scratched and spit on two NYPD officers on July 30 during an attempt to swipe paper towels from a Duane Reade.
Meanwhile sticky fingered Charles Wold, 59, said he was ‘grateful’ for bail reform because ‘I’m too old to go to jail. I’m way too old. I can’t do it.’ Wold allegedly broke into 10 businesses in Brooklyn and Manhattan over.
He hit three more spots near his home in the upscale neighborhood of Park Slope and was finally put behind bars.
Prosecutors told the judge $10,000 bail was the only way to ensure he would show up to court after skipping his appearances in two pending cases and violating parole.
Another, Isaac Rodriguez, was dubbed the ‘Man of Steal’ when he went on a larcenous bender wracking up 47 arrests for retail theft.
One Walgreens in Jackson Heights, Queens allegedly became a favorite spot. According to the NYPD, he was arrested 23 times taking items like nutritional shakes, skincare lotion, toothpaste and sanitary wipes.
His nonviolent offense kept him out of jail for awhile, but he violated a restraining order and returned to a Walgreens in Corona, Queens after he had allegedly shoplifted from it 13 times, according to the Post. That score landed him behind bars on $15,000 bail.
And another, Nolan Gonzalez, aka ‘GoGo,’ pilfered $350 worth of Tommy Hilfiger clothing from the Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square in May.
Gonzalez became such a frequent offender at the department store that Macy’s put out a ‘trespass notice’ on him to prevent him from returning to any of their outlets.
Police hit him with grand larceny, burglary and criminal possession of stolen property, but the Manhattan DA reduced the charges and he was released without bail.