A brazen thief shamelessly stole a bronze plaque from a Manhattan flower bed – erasing the memory of a man once known as “the mayor” of East 10th Street.
The bizarre heist happened just after 9 a.m. on May 27, when a man in a cap used the claw end of a hammer to remove the memorial honoring Ron Allaire, surveillance video shows.
Allaire — who worked as an audio engineer on albums including Jessica Simpson’s “A Public Affair” and Keith Richards’ “Main Offender” — had been living in the six-story, 125-year-old building for at least 20 years before he tragically succumbed to lung cancer in his early 50s in 2018, according to the building’s co-op board president and Allaire’s old friend Harold Levy.
“I just don’t understand why it happened. All of us are kind of confused by that. It’s a shame,” Levy said of the theft outside the building.
“Ron was kind of the mayor of the block – everyone knew him and he was loved by everyone in the building. The board decided we wanted to honor him after he passed,” he added.
The co-op installed the 10-by-5-inch bronze plaque bearing the message, “In memory of Ron ‘Ronzie’ Allaire,” at the cost of $235.
The owner of a Brooklyn scrap yard said bronze currently sells at $2.30 per pound.
Tim Fulton, the owner of TNT Scrap in Williamsburg, told The Post it’s not uncommon for “sick” individuals to try to sell him what are clearly sentimental items they’ve pilfered.
“We would never buy something like a memorial plaque,” Fulton insisted. “But some yards don’t care about [the victims] and they’ll buy anything, because they’re greedy and don’t give a sh-t about anything but themselves.”
Levy vowed to replace the precious plaque.
“If it came down to it, I would do it out of my pocket … but I am sure the co-op board will replace it,” he said.
