A crew of masked thieves pulled off a brazen smash-and-grab heist at a high-end Brooklyn jewelry store — making off with up to $2 million in gems in less than a minute.
Employees and shoppers were still inside Facets Jewelry in Park Slope around 5 p.m. Sunday when the three crooks stormed in, threatened to shoot a worker and began smashing display cases with hammers, police and witnesses said.
“I am shocked,” shop owner Irina Sulay told The Post on Monday. “Honestly, it’s very scary. I couldn’t even talk yesterday. I was hyperventilating, crying, sobbing, shaking.
“The whole thing lasted 38 seconds. They took two and a half full cases of diamond engagement rings, newer pieces we’ve designed in-house and pieces we’ve collected — art deco and Edwardian rings,” she said. “I want to say 100 rings.” Sulay said the stolen goods are valued at between $1 million and $2 million.
The owner said she was helping a customer when the three crooks showed up outside, with two lingering and the third ringing the buzzer to get into the store.
“I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt,” she explained. “It’s difficult. You try not to racially profile anyone and not be judgmental or discriminatory.
Once inside, she said, “the guy reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hammer — I didn’t even understand how a hammer could fit in there — and he says, ‘and this is how you use a hammer.’ He smashed three of our main displays.”
She said one of her employees reached for the phone, “but she’s shaking so she hands the phone to me and that’s when the guy in the door yells, ‘Don’t move! What the f–k are you going? I’m going to shoot you!’”
The three then took off with the merchandise and remain on the loose.
No one was physically hurt in the robbery — nor did the thieves actually display a gun.
But the incident nonetheless left workers and customers shaken, Sulay said.
“Just yesterday we were talking about the new year, that it was going to be a good year, and eight days later an insane situation has occurred,” she said.
“This is a woman-run business. We’re all mothers. There’s three women in the front.”
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