After Jocelyn Ullman picked up flood-soaked rugs she believed were discarded, NYPD's Request for Media Attention system circulated her image as a grand larceny suspect. Seven hours after she surrendered at the 83rd Precinct, she was released without charges. Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez's office sealed the case. The coverage had already run.

On July 15, Jocelyn Ullman walked into the 83rd Precinct in Bushwick to surrender herself over rugs she had taken from a sidewalk a week earlier, believing them discarded. She left seven hours later without charges — handcuffed, fingerprinted, mugshot-processed, and told her records would not be kept. Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez's office eventually sealed the case. But before either of those things happened, NYPD's media apparatus had already done its work.

After store owner Chyelle Milgrom filed a grand larceny complaint over $4,300 worth of rugs she'd left outside her Bushwick vintage shop and cafe during a late-night flood response on July 8, police issued what the department calls an RMA — a Request for Media Attention — circulating surveillance images of Ullman to local outlets and asking the public to help identify a grand larceny suspect. News 12 ran a reel. Other area outlets followed. Reddit amplified it. Ullman, an interior decorator who had been refurbishing the soaking-wet rugs for a client, learned about it when friends started forwarding the coverage.

The NYPD told Gothamist it "did our job" investigating a grand larceny complaint. Gonzalez's office declined to comment, citing the sealed case. Milgrom told Gothamist she was "horrified" to learn Ullman had been arrested, and wishes she had posted about the missing items on social media instead of calling police.

What the department's response did not address: whether any mechanism exists to formally retract an RMA once a case is sealed without charges. The RMA — an official departmental communication sent to newsrooms — had already identified Ullman publicly as a felony suspect before the DA's office acted. Ullman told Gothamist she worried about her professional reputation. "I was mortified," she said.

Stooping — the practice of taking items left on a sidewalk — occupies a legal gray area in New York City, where property is considered abandoned once placed curbside but the line between abandonment and theft turns on intent. The NYPD's RMA treated the question as settled before Gonzalez's office did.