New York thieves net $6 mn in jewelry on New Year's Eve

NEW YORK: Thieves rang in the new year in New York with a $6 million jewelry heist close to where thousands of police officers were deployed around Times Square for the annual midnight ball drop.

Police were still searching Tuesday for the three alleged robbers seen on surveillance cameras at KGK Holdings, an India-based jewelry wholesaler, police spokesman Detective Ahmed Nasser told AFP.

Around 10:00 pm Saturday, the trio entered the building in midtown Manhattan at 70 West 36th Street where the wholesaler is located.

Meanwhile, some 7,000 police officers were focused on providing security nearby for the throngs of people packing Times Square to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

Video footage showed the suspects went to the offices of KGK Holdings on the sixth floor and broke in using a hammer and pry-bar.

They stole “two safes that contained rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces,” said the detective.

The robbers made off with the loot just after midnight, he added, as the crowd celebrated the ball’s drop to signal the start of a new year in a New York tradition almost unbroken since 1907.

The police have released excerpts of the surveillance footage showing two alleged robbers, one with his lower face covered, trying to break down the door.

When they noticed they were being taped, one of them smashed the camera.

No one was injured in the theft, police said.