A Brooklyn Target has banned kids under 18 from shopping at the store without adult supervision â just the latest business in the area using drastic measures to curb delinquent behavior.
The Target â located in the Triangle Junction mall on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Avenue H â recently began posting security guards at its front doors and carding anybody who doesnât look of age, a store worker told The Post.
âAll guests under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult at this Target store,â a sign stationed inside the door reads.
Anybody who doesnât meet the age requirement and is without an adult is banned, and those who sneak in and get caught are escorted out.
The measure was reportedly put in place to cut down on recent fights and other rowdy behavior among groups of teens who have been loitering in the store and around the mall, said a 25-year-old security guard working the Targetâs door Monday.
âItâs just regular. They play around. They come in groups, you know, and a lot of kids â and theyâre not really friends,â the guard told The Post.
The teen problem has less to do with shoplifting â a rampant problem for Target and other stores that has grabbed headlines in recent years â and more to do with general delinquent behavior and loitering, he explained.
âWe try to make sure everybody doesnât have a hangout spot after school,â the guard said.
He said that just the other day, he had to intervene in a fight that began on the storeâs second floor and eventually spilled down into its basement lobby.
The dispute only heated up when he and colleagues stepped in to throw the rowdy kids out, he said.
âThey started cursing at each other. We sent them back down the stairs. One of them threw a punch. Stuff like that,â he said. âIâm assuming itâs the reason why this [age policy] happened in the first place. Because it makes guests uncomfortable.
âWe try our best,â he said.
Some customers are fully onboard with the new rules.
âI kind of think itâs a good idea because you canât predict what these kids are going to do, especially after school,â said 20-year-old Kaela Ramsey, who was shopping at the Target with her three teenage nieces.
âTheyâre not going to no activities. They arenât going to no programs or nothing. I see a lot of kids come in here and do a lot of nonsense,â she said. âIâve seen so many people get jumped. Iâve seen kids get milked â they throw milk on the kids, fighting with milk.â
But her 15-year-old niece, Kayla, called the age restriction âstupid.
âNot every kid comes in here and destroys Target and stuff,â the teen said, explaining she was even thrown out recently with an underage friend who was trying to buy âemergencyâ medication for her mother.
âI feel like they need to give everybody a fair opportunity to shop,â Kayla said. âI feel like itâs very dumb.â
Customer Festus Adogu, 80, who was in the Starbucks cafe at the Target, said that if the kids âsit down, do their work, alright.
But when they âplay and shout, [workers] call police all the time.â
The Target is just down the street from a McDonaldâs which last month barred anybody under 20 from entering without a parent â and hired a bounced to work the door and card everyone passing through.
The fast-food location rolled out the drastic measures after enduring more than a year of harassment from groups of kids â upwards of 20 at a time â who would roll in after school to trash the place and snatch food from customers.
The final straw came after one group charged in wearing ski masks and broke a glass door.
Retail crime has been on the decline in the neighborhood in recent years, NYPD data shows, but some businesses still remain a notorious hotspot for bad behavior.
More than 100 911 calls were made from that McDonaldâs in each of the past three years, and so far this year, there have been 29.
The Target guard said while he didnât like that businesses have to card kids, he knows managers have little choice â but that it was a shame well-behaved kids now have to miss out.
âI know when I was in high school, I was interested in getting some fast food after school,â he said.
âI get it, I understand it,â he said of the restrictions. âBut the kids who actually took $10 from their mom in the morning time to look forward to get something to eat after school, after a long day. So I feel bad for those kids.â
Target did not respond to a Post request for comment Monday.