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Leggo my churros! Cops eat our sweets, say busted NYC food vendors – Metro US

Leggo my churros! Cops eat our sweets, say busted NYC food vendors

Leggo my churros! Cops eat our sweets, say busted NYC food vendors
Wikimedia Commons

The accusations are dastardly — and delicious.

New York City cops have doubled their arrests of illegal food vendors in subway stations and on platforms this year — and now come accusations from churros sellers that officers are eating the sweets they seize.

“They take the churros, saying they need them for evidence and that they will return them, but they don’t return them,” Ana Alvarado told DNAinfo. “When they get to the precinct, whoever wants one grabs one, and whatever is left they put in a black bag.”

The accusations are made in a larger DNA piece revealing how churros sellers, primarily women, engage in a daily cat and mouse game with the NYPD.

“I tell police, ‘please don’t take me. You are taking food away from my children,’” Alvarado said. “Do you think it is just for them to arrest somebody for working and throw them in a cell with drug dealers and prostitutes?”

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<p>Yum. Sweet fritters.
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<p>Yum. Sweet fritters.
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<p dir=RELATED: Three women arrested on L platform selling churros .

A group called The Street Vendor Project is trying to decriminalize the food sales and end the arrests.

Says organizer Basma Eid: “They don’t want to be breaking the law, but at the end of the day, they’re trying to make money. A lot of times it’s their livelihood.”

The Metropolitan Transit Authority referred questions on the allegations to the New York Police Department and noted that subway Rules of Conduct dictate that: “No person, unless duly authorized by the Authority, shall engage in any commercial activity upon any facility or conveyance.”

NYPD officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The Post reports that arrests as of mid-March for food sales stood at 89, double the number for the same period last year.