Sunday’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.
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.
SMASH & GRAB HEIST — @FacetsParkSlope is open for business by APPOINTMENT only after 3 men robbed the store Sun. Surveillance video captured the 38 sec. robbery where one used a hammer to break display cases. The other bagged the jewelry valued at approx. $2M. #1010WINS pic.twitter.com/42LIUWMJCb
— Darius Radzius (@DariusRadzius) January 10, 2023
“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.
