A group of armed thieves made off with $800,000 worth of jewelry during a bold heist at a Queens jewelry store last Friday, according to police reports.
The trio, masked and armed with sledgehammers, targeted ABID Jewelers in Jackson Heights around 6:20 p.m., smashing the store’s window and grabbing 226 gold necklaces from the display, authorities said.
Store owner Abid Mukhtar recounted the incident, stating the thieves “took whatever they could hold” while he was inside.
“They had hammers and stopped traffic on the block to clear the area,” Mukhtar said. “I was here by myself and stepped outside when they were running out.”
After the robbery, the suspects reportedly fled in a black Jeep, which was later abandoned at the corner of 72nd Street and 35th Avenue. The thieves then switched to a black sedan and drove off in an unknown direction. Police suspect the Jeep was stolen.
Just two days later, the same group attempted to rob another jewelry store, Pyramids Jewelry II in Brooklyn, around 1:35 p.m.
However, their attempt to break the store’s window with sledgehammers was unsuccessful, and they fled the scene in a Honda Civic with Pennsylvania plates.
The NYPD has released surveillance footage from the original robbery in hopes of identifying the suspects.
Mukhtar expressed shock over the crime, stating, “We’ve never seen anything like this before on this street. We thought we were safe because it’s a busy area, but it still happened.”
