MANHATTAN — Thieves swiped $6 million in jewelry from a wholesaler on West 36th Street while about a million people watched the New Year's Eve ball drop just blocks away, NYPD officials said.
The trio of burglars, who can be seen in police surveillance footage released Monday, were waiting on the sixth floor in the stairway of 70 W. 36th St. from 10 p.m. until about midnight when they broke into KGK Holdings at 70 W. 36th St., near Sixth Avenue, using a pry bar and hammer, police said.
In police video, one stands to the side while the other bangs away with a hammer. They pause as one of them realizes a camera's been filming them the whole time and smashes it.
Once inside, they opened two of four safes and stole rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets with gold and diamonds, an NYPD spokesman said. Their loot was valued at $6 million, according to police.
The trio was still at large as of Tuesday morning, police said.
Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).
