Trashy jewel heist
Thieves roll spoils down NYC sidewalk
Brazen thieves used a rolling trash can to clean up at a Chelsea jewelry show — swiping $225,000 in rare pieces in broad daylight and then wheeling the full container down the street, cops said Friday.
Stunning surveillance footage captured one of the crooks calmly pushing the trash can, with the illicit gold, diamond- and pearl-laden goodies in a bag inside, along a Manhattan sidewalk.
It was at least the suspected second heist for the crew, which also swiped more than $225,000 from a Javits Center show in Manhattan last month — bringing their illicit total to over half a million dollars.
“It happened in the blink of an eye,” said a woman named Julia, who owned the items stolen in Chelsea, to The Post, asking that her last name not be used.
The gang of thieves — three men and a woman — had entered the New York City Jewelry and Watch Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion on West 18th Street near Sixth Avenue in the trendy Chelsea neighborhood at around 11 a.m. on Oct. 26, police said.
One of the suspects — a man with salt-and-pepper hair, dressed casually in black slacks and a sweater — simply snatched a cardboard box with 120 pieces of the antique jewelry from a display as vendors were milling around setting up the day before the show, according to police and footage obtained by NBC.
“It was partially because the booth next to me was empty that they could reach into the back of my booth,” said Julia, the owner of Roy Rover Antiques. “Normally that whole row would have been full of people, and it wasn’t.
“It was the worst box he could have taken from us,” she said of the crook. “It was all my favorite, newest antique stuff. It wasn’t just generic chains and charms.
“I didn’t immediately notice it was gone because I thought it was in a secure location,” she said of the box. “It wasn’t until I ran out of other boxes to unpack that [it became clear] it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. I was thinking I was just a crazy woman, that I placed it somewhere and misplaced it.”
Cops released footage of the thief pushing the trash can with his illgotten treasure along the sidewalk as a male cohort in a buttoned-up cardigan trailed behind him. Both men were wearing COVID face masks at the time.
Before making it to the corner, the first man lifted a vacuum cleaner from the container and the other man grabbed the trash bag with the stolen goodies inside before both men fled, the video shows.
It’s unclear how the crew made it past the front door of the show, much less how they went unnoticed during and after the heist.
Julia said there is security at the event.
“We all have to have official badges with our names on and photographs,” she said. “I think it’s outrageous that [the thieves] got out of the building like that.”
Asked which stolen piece was most special to her, she replied, “Oh, you want me to choose between my children? How can I do that? It’s all special. Every piece was unique, and every piece has a story.”
But she said that if she had to choose one, it would be an item that her late husband bought.
“I just brought it out of the vault because I thought it was time to let go of some of the things. It was a beautiful Georgian diamond cross that was priced at $12,000,” Julia said. “That was the most valuable piece to me because my husband passed away two years ago, and he purchased it.”
She said the pilfered pieces were 150 years old on average, with some dating back around 300 years.
“They are very special — that was my greatest sadness. I have more boring jewelry, too. That was just the prettiest stuff and probably the hardest to sell,” Julia said.
“It’s rare and unusual,” she said. “Most of the value is in the workmanship and not in the piece and in the antique age of it.”
Julia, who posted photos of some of the stolen goods on Instagram, said she spent her life collecting the pieces.
“In all the years of doing business, this is the first time it’s happened to me,” she said.
“I thought it was a secure environment,” she said of the Chelsea event. “I’ve done these shows 25 years.”