INWOOD — An uptown woman is asking for help after thieves stole a treasured oil painting of her late grandfather from her car.
Park Terrace East resident Annette Diiorio had left her car parked on West 217th Street between Park Terrace East and Park Terrace West for about a week when she checked on it last week, only to find it had been ransacked and robbed. Several items were stolen, but the painting she commissioned and gave as a present to her late father is priceless to her.
"I'm just hoping that they sold it somebody who has a good eye for paintings and they'll see it," Diiorio, 48, said Tuesday.
Diiorio saw on Friday that her car had been looted, although no windows were broken.
"The glove compartment was open. Everything was scattered everywhere. The compartment between the two front seats was open," she said, adding that the thieves also snatched a $50 fold-up playpen for her 1-year-old son.
But it's the oil painting of her grandfather, Diodato, that matters most. Diiorio had the painting made from a portrait by a friend six years ago, she said. She gave it to her father, Carmine, as a gift for his 80th birthday.
After Diiorio's father died earlier this year, she found the painting while cleaning out his house.
Diiorio said she has no estimate of the monetary value of the family heirloom.
"Just give it back," she said.
Police did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the theft.
