Robbers Make Off With $50,000 of Gucci Merchandise At Gunpoint in New York

New York police are looking for a black Honda SUV with New Jersey license plates after three robbers – two males and a girl – allegedly stole $50,000 of merchandise from a Gucci retailer within the metropolis’s Meatpacking District at gunpoint.

The suspects took the merchandise after telling customers and retailer gross sales assistants to lie down, police stated.

Video footage confirmed the theft crew eradicating luggage of product and rolling out suitcases in broad daylight, loading the Honda and rushing off. They have been final seen driving into the Lincoln Tunnel towards New Jersey.

Vacationers within the space instructed a neighborhood radio station they have been stunned by the daytime raid. “It’s very daring and center of the day for anyone to rob a really high-end retailer at gunpoint and put all of the poor individuals there in danger, horrible,” stated Rosemary Welburn, a vacationer from Australia.

Joe Salama, from Brooklyn, instructed the outlet he and his household had not travelled by subway to the world to keep away from crime.

“So we got here in to spend the day, ? The children are off from college at this time, it’s a pleasant household day and that’s, like, the very last thing I might anticipate,” he stated. “We determined to drive and never take the subway as a result of we felt prefer it wasn’t possibly so secure. So I really feel like issues have deteriorated just a little bit.”

The armed heist comes two years after Gucci’s retailer in SoHo was repeatedly knocked off throughout pandemic lockdowns. On one night time, the bottom ground was cleaned out of products, and the basement the next night.

In August, a smash-and-grab crew hit two different luxurious retailers close to Los Angeles and made off with $300,000 in Saint Laurent merchandise in a number of getaway vehicles. An identical sized crew of 30 to 40 individuals hit a close-by Nordstrom retailer the next day, making off with $100,000 in merchandise.

New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, has been waging warfare on luxurious items counterfeiters, together with clearing merchants off the sidewalks on Canal Road and over the span of the Brooklyn Bridge, however robberies of authentic luxurious items from authentic retailers pose a distinct drawback for authorities.

Final month, the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, introduced the formation of a brand new $25 million “smash-and-grab enforcement unit” to crack down on retail theft, help small companies and retail employees “and produce peace of thoughts to New Yorkers.”

The Nationwide Retail Federation estimated that organised retail crime – outlined as “the large-scale theft of retail merchandise with the intent to resell the objects for monetary achieve” – accounted for “almost half” of what retailers euphemistically name shrinkage, estimated at $112 billion in 2022.

Nevertheless, the retail lobbying physique was pressured to right that estimate when it was proven that the “almost half” declare got here from congressional testimony from Ben Dugan, an advocacy threat guide.

Gucci this week will try to revive its luxurious luster at its vogue present in Milan beneath a brand new inventive director. The model had soared beneath the path of designer Alessandro Michele, however he was fired in 2022 when gross sales stalled, taking with it half of proprietor Kering’s share worth.

New designer Sabato de Sarno hit the reset button in September, saying he desires the world to fall for Gucci once more and inform “a narrative of music and nights out, of sweat, dancing and singing … a narrative of household, of kissing, heaps and many kisses” – a message that has but to achieve New York’s luxurious smash-and-grab crews.

By Edward Helmore

Be taught extra:

The Organised Retail Crime Phenomenon, Explained

Experiences of large-scale theft rings are driving US lawmakers to discover tough-on-crime insurance policies. Knowledge on whether or not there’s a crime wave paints a extra ambiguous image. BoF unpacks the murky scenario.