Robber sentenced in jewelry store heist
Mieczyslaw “Mike” Bednarczyk isn’t counting on the $ 242,630.92 in restitution owed by one of the thieves who robbed him of gold and stones at his North Side jewelry business.
“It’s in Israel,” he said. “It’s all gone to his family members over there.”
Bednarczyk was referring to Victor T. Aloush, 48, who was sentenced to four years in prison Friday for the violent June 30, 2014, robbery of his business, Gold Craft, on Sinclair Road. Prosecutors had sought more than seven years in prison. The restitution ordered was for the stolen gold and diamonds and other losses.
“Injustice was done today,” Bednarczyk said after the hearing.
U. S. District Judge James L. Graham found that Aloush, 48, of the Chicago area, was indigent, but noted that the law required him to order the restitution, which is based on the victim’s actual financial loss.
Aloush was among several men who robbed Bednarczyk on July 29, 2014. The group had contacted him earlier about buying diamonds from Gold Craft for another defendant’s jewelry store in the Chicago area. In January, that defendant, Meir Hillel, was found incompetent to stand trial.
“What happened to the gold? They melted it down,” Bednarczyk said after the hearing. The identification numbers laser-etched on the diamonds have been removed, he’s sure of that.
The Gold Craft heist began when one robber burst into the office yelling that he was the FBI and ordered Bednarczyk on the ground. Others came in with bags and scooped up the gold and diamonds.
Bednarczyk underwent testing for HIV and hepatitis for biting the tip off the ring finger of a third “300-pound, 6-foot-1” defendant, Anthony W. Persinger, 39, who was kneeling on his chest. Persinger dislocated Bednarczyk’s thumb trying to tie his hands.
Bednarczyk grabbed a pistol off his work bench and chased the robbers but they got away.
Updated information about Persinger’s case was unavailable.
“They turned my life upside down,” Bednarczyk said.
Business fell off after the attack and he had to spend $ 180,000 to restock.
The 63-year-old, who immigrated from Poland in 1985, wants to get out of the jewelry business after 25 years.
He’d rather open a shoe store in a building he bought on Parsons Avenue on the South Side. He said he’s worried the same group will rob him again if he stays in the jewelry business.
“My shame is too large to measure,” said Aloush, who pleaded guilty in September to violating the Hobbs Act — committing a robbery to interfere with interstate commerce.
“I just lost my mind,” he said.
He said his health is poor after 20 months in the Delaware County jail ( time that will be deducted from his 4- year sentence). His parents back in Israel are “broken- hearted,” he said. His wife, sister- in- law and a rabbi were in the gallery but didn’t address the court.
Aloush asked Graham to sentence him to a lifetime of probation instead of a prison term.
Defense attorney Keith A. Yeazel said Aloush suffers from post- traumatic stress disorder from his stint in the Israeli army during the Palestinian uprising of the late 1980s.
Although Aloush planned the robbery, Graham said he had mental health issues and a learning disability, and was unlikely to commit a crime again.
The U. S. attorney’s financial litigation unit is charged with collecting restitution, which includes hidden assets and those transferred to other individuals. The law says the hunt will last 20 years, or until the defendant dies.
“Twenty years?” Bednarczyk said. “I need the money now.”