Cops are looking for two jewel thieves who posed as buyers, then bound and tied the employees at a Diamond District gem store, before committing a robbery at gunpoint. "One of the hawkers on the street who grab people brought the guys up," a security guard on the scene yesterday told the Post. They ascended to the second floor of the building, at 55 West 47th Street, then one man pulled a gun; using zip ties they immobilized three workers and a customer at Royal Gems. It’s unclear how much cash and jewelry they took, reports the Post, but as they were fleeing the man who’d ushered them inside collapsed to the ground, leading onlookers to fear the worst.
The hawker was taken to the hospital around noon after apparently having a nervous breakdown. "Nobody got shot. The old dude just got scared and fell down. Like a heart attack or something," said the security guard witness. Paramedics identified his injury as "noncritical."
Retailers in the district suspect the thieves, who were around 25-years old, may strike again, but they say their scheme can’t work for long. "It’s very dangerous to be on the second floor because thieves think they are invisible," said Simon Moas, who runs nearby Sim Jewelry. "But they aren’t because there are cameras everywhere, so there is definitely a picture of the thief," he said. Police are currently trying to locate that picture. Recently another set of masquerading jewelry crooks donned Hasidic garb to get access to a Diamond District store. One hawker told the Times that tricks like these frequently grace the area. “Somebody swallows a diamond,” he said. “Somebody gives a fake credit card and then walks away with jewels.”
