By Ilana Siyance
On Sunday, February 24th, a thief wearing a burqa and armed only with a spray bottle, stole almost $1 million in necklaces and watches from an upscale jewelry store in Hudson Yards. As reported by the NY Post, a man who had most of his face covered, entered the Piaget Jewelry store at about 3:55 p.m., asking to look at a necklace, as per police officials. The store’s sales clerk took out the necklace from the display, and suddenly he noticed the man was holding one of the store’s watches, as per sources. When the employee grilled the man about the watch, he took out a spray bottle and squirted an unidentified liquid towards the clerk and ran out of the store. The bandit stole the necklace, priced at around $21,000, as well as two watches. One of the watches was priced at a whopping $715,000, and the other at $64,000. Piaget valued the total loss at about $800,600. The Piaget store, in Manhattan’s West side at 200 Hudson Yards, is one of its flagship boutiques.
Later on Sunday evening, management at the Hudson Yard Shops sent an email to its tenants warning them to be vigilant. “Maybe they’ll want to hit another time,” said Peter Young, a senior sales consultant for nearby Watches of Switzerland. “I heard from a sales associate it was a man dressed as a woman, dressed in a burqa,” he added, and that he may have altered his voice to sound like the “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader.
Personnel from the other multiple jewelry stores also on the ground floor of the Hudson Yards shops were shaken to hear of the burglary. “It’s awful,” said an employee at Cartier, situated just across the hall. An administrator at nearby Van Cleef & Arpels who declined to give provide name, noted it was all part of the business. “I heard about it. It’s crazy, but that’s the jewelry world. Hopefully they’ll catch him,” he told the Post.
The suspect is still at large, as of Monday, and could not be accurately identified because of the burqa head covering he donned. The garb is typically worn by women in some Muslim cultures, and succeeded to conceal most of the bandit’s face, police sources say.
Workers at the Piaget store said they have no comment.
