Gem store worker, 79, pistol-whipped in rob

A 79-year-old Queens jewelry store worker was beaten and pistol-whipped during a $500,000 heist, police said Thursday.

A pair of robbers burst into Diamond Collect on 39th Ave. near Prince St. in Flushing around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to cops.

The cruel crooks kicked and punched the worker and bashed her in the head with a handgun before making off with the half million dollars’ worth of assorted jewelry.

Surveillance footage released by the NYPD shows one robber (inset) brandishing a gun with the victim on the floor after she was assaulted. Glass shatters as a display case is busted by the other robber, who pulls an object from his waistband while the victim puts up her hand in a defensive posture.

After the crooks fled, the victim was taken by medics to New York-Presbyterian Queens in stable condition.

The robbers ran off south towards Prince St. and have not been caught. Cops are asking the public’s help identifying them and tracking them down.

Ruby Chen, who works at Shi Seido, a cosmetic boutique in the same complex, said that around the Chinese New Year, the dumpling shop downstairs from the jewelry store was robbed and the window of another store was broken.

“The sushi store on the other side even had the glass broken,” Chen said. “People went inside to steal stuff before the store opened. If this keeps on happening, we’re going to lock the door, too, because we’re all ladies here. We can only lock the door.”

Chen said there were plans for a shelter on the corner down the street, and that it makes her a little nervous to have more people around.

Terence Lye, who manages PappaRich, a Malaysian restaurant in the complex, said he has stepped up security.

“After the pandemic, we installed an alarm system,” Lye said. “We opened here seven years ago, and in six years we never had an alarm system because nothing happened.”