Snday’s $2 million smash-and-grab heist at a Park Slope jewelry store is just the latest audacious attack in the once-quiet, upscale Brooklyn enclave, The Post has learned.
Two other shops have been targeted by crooks in recent months, including Glitz Jewelers on 7th Avenue in August and an AT&T outlet — next to Facets Jewelry, which was ransacked this past weekend — on New Year’s Day.
“The criminals are brazen,” said Eddie Khanimov, owner of Glitz Jewelers, where sledgehammer-wielding robbers made off with a third of his store’s inventory — $200,000 in gold and diamonds — in less than 10 minutes on Aug. 17. “They don’t care. It’s like the wild, wild west. They are in and out in five minutes.”
At the AT&T store, thieves, also armed with sledgehammers, tried but failed to get into the safe — the second time the store was hit in less than a month.
Park Slope’s uptick in crime is the worst Khanimov has seen “since the ’80s,” he said — and he blames the state’s controversial bail laws.
“The people doing these crimes are repeat offenders, who the courts keep letting out. … The laws have to be changed,” he said. “Repeat offenders should go to jail and stay in jail. They have to stop letting them out.”
Under the controversial 2019 state criminal justice reforms, judges are prohibited from setting bail on most crimes — including nearly all non-violent larcenies.
Critics had long complained that the statute creates a revolving door for repeat offenders — releasing them to the streets to commit more crimes, including serial thieves.
A downward Slope
NYPD statistics reviewed by The Post show that shoplifting and retail thefts in Park Slope jumped more than 55% in the 78th Precinct — which patrols Park Slope — through September compared to the same nine-month time span in 2021.
Between January 2022 and September 2022, cops reported 736 petit and grand larceny reports from neighborhood retailers — up from 473 over the same period in 2021.
By stark contrast, between January and September in 2020, Brooklyn cops reported 312 larcenies from Park Slope stores during the nine-month span.
And the trend seems to be continuing into the new year.
Through Sunday, the 78th Precinct had handled 21 grand larceny complaints.
While the tally includes all thefts of more than $1,000, not just from retailers, it is more the four times higher than the first week of last year when five were reported.
“The first time they broke through the glass door with a sledgehammer and ran to the back office,” AT&T salesman Mursalin Rasool said of the two late-night incidents there.
“I don’t know if they knew that’s where the safe was,” he said. “They tried to see what they could get their hands on but once they saw the safe was locked and they couldn’t anything, they ran out … They were only in here for 30 seconds.”
Nearly 83% of the incidents in Park Slope consisted of stolen property worth less than $1,000, creating a headache for smaller neighborhood businesses as well.
And it’s not just big-ticket items walking out the doors of local retailers.
While grand larceny reports — thefts of valuables worth $1,000 or more — make up about 15% of retail thefts, the bulk of the 2022 crimes plaguing Park Slope through September were smaller heists classified as petit larceny.
“Kids steal from me every day,” said Majeed Arbahri, owner of Green Olives Deli. “The police say they can’t do anything and told me just to put their pictures in the window. So, I’ve turned one of the TVs that showed the menu into ‘Thieves of the Week.’
“I’ve told them if they don’t have any money I will make them a sandwich for free,” Arbahri said. “But they don’t accept and keep stealing.”
The latest high-profile theft came Sunday at Facets Jewelers when brazen thieves stormed in around 5 p.m. with shoppers still in the store and smashed several display cases with hammers — fleeing with up to $2 million in diamond rings after just 38 seconds.
“This was a very safe neighborhood, and I’m not sure I feel the same way,” Irina Sulay, owner of Facets Jewelry, told The Post. “I’m so frightened. I’m not even opening the door to my loyal clients. I even recognize who they are, and I won’t let them in.
“It feels like we’re alone,” she said.
https://nypost.com/2023/01/10/park-slope-shop-owners-terrorized-by-uptick-in-brazen-crimes/
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