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Jewelry Store Owner Chucks Bottles, Antiques at Knife-Wielding Robbers

By Alexandra Leon | February 15, 2017 3:45pm
 Police are looking for two men who stole items from the Elleven jewelry store on Smith Street.
Police are looking for two men who stole items from the Elleven jewelry store on Smith Street.
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DNAinfo/Alexandra Leon

BOERUM HILL — A jewelry store owner boldly bashed a pair of knife-wielding robbers in the head with some of the shop's wares when the suspects tried to clean the joint out, police and the owner said.

The two men walked into Elleven at 98 Smith St. wearing ski masks and goggles around 11:45 a.m. on Feb. 10, according to a police report and store owner Nisim, who declined to give his last name.

The suspects — one of whom had a large kitchen knife on him — walked behind the counter and placed a bag to a female employee’s head, telling her to get down, according to police. 

The store owner said he heard the staffer scream and went downstairs to see what was going on.

There, he found the suspects grabbing jewelry from a display case that had been left open near the register.

The owner then took matters into his own hands, chucking heavy glass bottles and even an antique scale at the suspects, he recounted.

“There were a bunch of items on display here that I managed to break on their heads, and they ran out,” Nisim explained. “I got one of them good, and that’s what kind of backed him up.”

One of the men dropped the knife, which the store owner described as a foot-and-a-half long, as they running out of the store.

Neither employee was injured during the robbery, he noted, declining to say what the suspects got away with and how much the items were worth.

“We got lucky, everything is good,” Nisim said.

Police are now searching for the suspects, who the owner described as in their 50s, with one of them wearing a trench coat.

Other notable crimes in the 84th Precinct include:

► A 39-year-old man was walking onto the Manhattan Bridge from the Brooklyn side near Sands and Jay streets at 9 p.m. Feb. 4 when an unknown suspect approached him and went through his pockets, taking his wallet from his pants pocket and fleeing, police said. The wallet contained a credit card and $200 cash. The man was not injured.

► Burglars stole $11,500 in jewelry from an apartment on Bond Street, between Pacific and Dean streets, at 9 a.m. on Feb. 7, police said. They broke in through a side door on the fire escape after breaking a lock bolt.

► A burglar stole a MacBook laptop, jewelry and four bottles of alcohol from an apartment at Hicks and State streets sometime between 8:30 a.m. and 8:15 p.m. on Feb. 10, police said.

► An MTA worker was attacked by two men as she was returning to work at her booth at the Jay Street-MetroTech R train station, near Willoughby and Lawrence streets, at 6 a.m. on Feb. 11, police said. One man punched her in her left arm and took her purse, worth $150, while the other took her phone from her hand before they both fled on foot. The MTA declined to comment on the robbery.