NEW YORK — Less than 24 hours after two thieves robbed a Diamond District jewelry store, uniformed and undercover police officers made their presence known on Wednesday morning, while merchants tried to get back to business.
At 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a man posing as a delivery man was buzzed into the Watch Standard Jewelry Store at 23 West 47th Street, while the second suspect remained on the sidewalk as a lookout. Once inside the company’s eighth-floor office, the first suspect, who was armed, demanded property from the safe that was open on the premises, according to police. Four employees on site were complying, when a fifth employee, an unnamed 56-year-old man, walked in. The suspect then hit the fifth staffer in the head with the gun, causing a minor laceration. The armed suspect then fled the scene with jewelry, watches and money, according to police.
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Investigators are searching for two black male suspects: One man is about six feet tall and 40 to 50 years old; he was last seen wearing a dark trench coat, light-colored pants and a tweed colored Kangol hat. The second suspect is believed to be 30 to 40 years old and was last seen wearing a red baseball cap, True Religion jeans, a black zip-front hoodie and black sneakers.
Since the Watch Standard Jewelry Store’s inventory was taken on Wednesday, police now believe $500,000 worth of merchandise was stolen, contrary to earlier reports of a $2 million heist.
The Diamond District, located on 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, was sealed off from pedestrians and vehicular traffic on Tuesday afternoon for nearly two hours. Workers were instructed to stay in their buildings during the initial search. By Wednesday morning, the neighborhood was getting back to its out-on-the-street routine. Aside from the numerous security guards who typically stand in front of different buildings, the hawkers — that is, individuals who approach strangers to ask if they are buying or selling jewelry — were back in force. Many conversations, however, were about the robbery, not business.
Seated on a sidewalk stool keeping a close eye on passers-by, Hector Panama, a private security agent who stands guard on both sides of the block on any given day, said the two thieves were allegedly taped on surveillance cameras in the area. Having worked on the block for 10 or 11 years, Panama said many Diamond District stores and businesses have their own firearms for protection. “When you’re running a business like this, most of them carry something. They’re dealing with millions [of dollars of goods],” he said. “The thing is, they never get a chance to pull them out because they’re not expecting this.”
Panama said, “Of course, people are worried. It’s dangerous. You don’t know what can happen.”
Kevin Allen, a security guard in charge of 45 West 47th Street who has worked on the block for five years, said there were a lot more undercover police officers than normal in the Diamond District on Wednesday. An NYPD officer standing nearby disagreed, noting that tenants were trying to go back to their routines.
There tends to be a lot of police activity in the Diamond District, where fistfights between workers and sometimes with customers are fairly common, according to Panama. Unlike most of Manhattan, the block is a throwback, free from any major chains and dedicated to jewelry stores. The east end of the Diamond District is a block or so from the new Topman store, as well as stores such as H&M, Sephora and Barnes & Noble.