A thief ambushed a Diamond District worker outside his luxury watch store, and made off with a $10,000 Rolex, according to the owner, who said the situation has opened his eyes to an increasingly unsafe Big Apple.
The male suspect shoved the Rare Time NY employee to the pavement outside the shop on 5th Avenue shop near West 48th Street on Tuesday at around 5 p.m. and snatched a grey bag with two Rolex watches inside, police said.
“My employee was walking back to the office, and it happened from behind him,” Rare Time NY owner Alec, who declined to give his last name for safety reasons, told The Post.
The 22-year-old employee chased the mugger.
“He started running all the way up to Sixth Avenue, and he was able to get the bag back right in front of where Radio City [Music Hall] is. They got into a little scuffle on the street … they definitely wrestled for the bag,” Alec recalled his employee telling him.
The perp also pleaded with the worker during the tussle, saying, “Please just give me $500 or $1,000 — you guys never help me out,” according to Alec and police sources.
“It [is] almost as if [the perp had] been around the area or he’d seen my employee before, but my employee had never seen him, so we’re not sure,” Alec explained.
“Apparently there were a ton of witnesses and a cop who saw it but didn’t do anything,” he noted.
The thief made off with one of the watches – a $10,000 brand-new Rolex DateJust with a blue index dial – but “luckily” left the more expensive one behind, the owner said.
“My employee was in utter shock. … It’s definitely unfortunate that this is happening more and more now, and it’s definitely less safe in the city,” Alec lamented.
Responding NYPD officers told Alec’s employee that the perp “was loitering around the 47th Street area for over five hours,” he said.
Other people in the industry had also seen him before, Alec also learned.
“With everybody who works on the street, we have group chats. And I had put out a message like, ‘Be on the lookout’. … And people had texted me, ‘Hey, I saw this guy all day on 47th Street.’” he said.
“Another guy texted me, ‘I think this is the same guy that stole my jacket off me and my hat last week,’” Alec added.
Surveillance footage released by cops on Saturday shows the suspect in another nearby store wearing a black-and-green North Face jacket.
The victim was not hurt. No arrests have been made yet.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.
