EMBED More News Videos Police are investigating a $6 million jewelry heist in Manhattan.

MIDTOWN, Manhattan (WABC) -- Police are searching for three men in connection with a $6 million New Year's Eve jewelry heist in Midtown, Manhattan.Surveillance shows two of the suspects armed with a hammer and a crowbar. They worked for about 10 seconds until they noticed the camera - then, it was lights out.As more than a million people packed into Times Square under the watchful eye of 7,000 police officers, just a few blocks away in a nondescript office building, police said the three suspects got away with a fortune.The ultimate New Year's Eve diversion provided cover for an epic heist at 12:01 a.m. in the offices of high-end jewelry designer Gregg Ruth, whose website offers rings costing as much as $62,000.After the suspects busted their way into the offices, they seemed to have had free run of two different safes.Law enforcement sources said officers found no sign of forced entry. The thieves grabbed handfuls of loot, making off with an estimated $6 million worth of jewels. They then fled the building down the fire stairs.Police are asking anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers at 1800-577-TIPS or visit the website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com </s> Three unidentified men waited until the New Year's Eve ball dropped to pull off a multi-million dollar diamond jewelry heist in Midtown, Manhattan.

The heist took place inside KGK Holdings jewelry wholesaler at 70 W. 36th St., in what appears to be an inside job, since the thieves didn't have to crack the safes when they got inside.

'The safes were opened. They didn't even have to pry', police told the New York Daily News.

thousands of police were patrolling Times Square just a few blocks away.

'They laid in wait until the ball dropped', police told the New York Post.

The trio allegedly stole $6 million worth of diamond jewelry and are still at large.

In the surveillance video, a bearded white male wearing a hoodie and a backpack can be seen banging a hammer for several seconds. At one point, he looks straight into the camera.

His accomplice, wearing a hoodie and face mask, makes numerous attempts to break the surveillance camera with a hammer.

They used a hammer and crow bar to gain entry into the building through the freight entrance to the sixth floor at about 10pm, as revelers gathered at Times Square.

Once they were inside, the trio snuck into the sixth-floor offices of Gregg Ruth, a commercial jewelry store owned by KGK Holdings known for its rare yellow and pink diamonds, and allegedly grabbed the gems from two safes.

Police said one of the safes wasn't locked.

A security guard posted in front of the business said the company had no security officers protecting the premises before the robbery.

The wholesaler reported the theft at 3pm on Sunday.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS. </s> Police released footage Monday of thieves who they say made off with $6 million worth of jewelry on New Year’s Eve.

A clear black and white video shows two men breaking into the KGK Holdings jewelry wholesaler at 70 West 36th Street using a hammer and a pry-bar as light snow appears to fall around them at around 10 p.m.

The men look straight into the camera several times before trying to whack it.

Police said the thieves stole jewelry valued at $6 million from two safes, and then fled from the sixth floor of the building using the stairwell.

The suspects have not been apprehended.

Anyone with information about the 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 WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential. </s> Five armed robbers allegedly pounced on a Glen Norah C couple during the night and got away with $37 000 in cash and mobile phones after torturing the couple with a hot iron.

 

 Mikia Pirikisi (31), Tariro Mutsamanye (27), Daniel Munyanyi (40), Gilbert Tavagadza (47) and Leonard Huni (34), allegedly threatened to shoot the couple when they refused to disclose where they kept their money.



The gang used a hot iron to ‘iron’ the couple’s bodies until they gave in to the torture and disclosed where they kept the money. Herald </s> Robert Kraft Is Formally Charged With Solicitation Over Visits To Florida Day Spa

Enlarge this image toggle caption Kevin Winter/Getty Images Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Updated at 5:46 p.m. ET

The Florida state attorney's office in Palm Beach says New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been charged with two counts of soliciting prostitution, days after police alleged surveillance video had caught Kraft during two visits to the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Fla.

State Attorney Dave Aronberg said at a news conference Monday that Kraft, a resident of Massachusetts who also has a home in Palm Beach, is among 25 people facing first-degree misdemeanor charges of soliciting another to commit prostitution.

As for potential penalties, Aronberg said the charge potentially carries a prison sentence of up to one year, along with "mandatory 100 hours of community service, a mandatory $5,000 fine, and a mandatory class on the dangers of prostitution and human trafficking."

The police investigation into the spa was aimed at stopping human trafficking, which Aronberg equated to "modern day slavery" and called an "evil in our midst."

Officials will send Kraft a summons about the charge, the state attorney said. He also said all of the cases will be handled in the same way.

"No one gets any special justice in Palm Beach County," Aronberg said. He later added that none of the alleged "johns" were targeted, saying they come from "all walks of life — there's rich [and] poor, there's young and old."

The women who worked at the spa were victims of a criminal enterprise who deserve the government's help, Aronberg said. While he didn't provide new details about how the women who worked at the Jupiter spa arrived in the U.S., the state attorney described how human traffickers often lure women to come to the U.S. for the promise of a better life, but instead force them into becoming sex workers.

Kraft and the other men, including former Citigroup President and COO John Havens, and Wall Street financier John Childs, were snared in a sting operation that targeted the strip-mall massage parlor and spa — part of a broader investigation into what officials allege is a system of human trafficking and money-laundering.

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, whose office opened the investigation that led to more than 300 arrest warrants across Florida counties, told NPR's All Things Considered the sting was launched after receiving a tip about one of the illicit businesses.

A health care worker visiting one of the day spas noticed suitcases in one of the massage parlors and other indicators that some of the women might be living in the storefront business, Snyder said. Eventually, officials discovered that six to eight women were living in the small commercial space at any given time.

"They were staying inside the massage parlor for 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Snyder explained, adding that the women, most of whom do not speak English, "were working seven days a week."

He said the women cooked food on hot plates and slept on the same massage tables where they were forced to provide sexual services for eight to 15 men per day.

A Chinese woman currently in protective custody has provided grim details about how some of the women ended up working there.

She told investigators she was offered a job "making a lot of money" in an American nail salon, Snyder said. "And before she knew it she came here and found herself in the sex trafficking industry in massage parlors."

She did not speak out because she feared her family in China would be put at risk if she cooperated with law enforcement.

In other cases, he said, women are trafficked into the country with their children and forced into making a horrible bargain with their captors: Engage in sex work in exchange for the well-being of their children.

"There are coercion points that keep them in bondage and the person with the key is not the trafficker. It's the men who go into these parlors and avail themselves of this human misery," Snyder told NPR. "I think they are monsters."

The Martin County probe quickly led to a multi-jurisdictional investigation in Indian River County — where billionaire Childs and three law enforcement officers were snagged — and Palm Beach County, where Kraft and Havens were charged.

Jupiter Police Chief Daniel Kerr said in a press conference on Friday that there is video evidence of the criminal acts "for all of the individuals being charged," including Kraft.

"We categorically deny that Mr. Kraft engaged in any illegal activity," a spokesman for The Kraft Group told NPR Friday in a statement about the case. "Because it is a judicial matter, we will not be commenting further."

Jupiter police raided the Orchids of Asia spa early last week, Kerr said at a news conference Friday. In addition to Jupiter, the coordinated police operation targeted businesses in Martin County and Indian River County. The Jupiter raid came after police collected video evidence from cameras hidden inside the facility.

"We're as equally stunned as everybody else," Kerr said of the high-profile suspects who now faced solicitation charges.

Kraft's is not the only boldface name among the spa's alleged clients. Also on the list is Citigroup's former president and chief operation officer John Havens.

The spa charges $59 for a half-hour treatment and $79 for a full hour, Detective Andrew Sharp said on Friday. When Sharp was asked if there is video evidence of Kraft in the massage parlor room receiving alleged sex acts, he replied, "The answer to that is yes."

In addition to seeking charges against men who visited the spa, Jupiter police also arrested its owner, Hua Zhang, and its manager, Lei Wang.

Kraft, 77, has a net worth that's estimated at some $6.6 billion. He was recently ranked No. 79 on Forbes magazine's list of the wealthiest people in the U.S. Most famously, Kraft has turned the Patriots into a dynasty, winning multiple Super Bowl titles since its first championship in 2002. He acquired the franchise in 1994.

Childs, founder of private equity firm J.W. Childs Associates, was among 165 people charged by the Vero Beach Police Department and whose photo was released on the police website.

"I have received no contact by the police department about this charge," he told Bloomberg on Friday. "The accusation of solicitation of prostitution is totally false. I have retained a lawyer."

A man who answered the listed phone number for Havens told the news outlet: "I have no idea what you are talking about," when asked about the charges.

In addition to the criminal charge in Florida, Kraft also faces the possibility that the NFL could take action against him.

League spokesman Brian McCarthy said on Friday that the NFL is "aware" of the allegations and is monitoring the case. The NFL's personal conduct policy explicitly prohibits sex offenses — and the rules apply to everyone in the league, McCarthy said.

The policy also seeks to impose a higher order of responsibility for one's actions than simply avoiding being found guilty by the justice system.

On Monday, the NFL issued an updated statement saying that it is "seeking a full understanding of the facts," and pledging to "take appropriate action as warranted based on the facts." </s> Police took a second person into custody Thursday night in connection to the murders of four Bucks County men who went missing last week, according to a report.

Sean Kratz, 20, was detained in Northeast Philadelphia, and cops are working to determine if he helped Cosmo DiNardo, 20, kill the young men — Mark Sturgis, 22, Tom Meo, 21, Jimi Tar Patrick, 19, and Dean Finocchiaro, 19, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

DiNardo confessed to the killings on Thursday afternoon in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table, his lawyer said.

He also admitted to selling the men marijuana before fatally shooting them and burning their bodies on his family’s sprawling farm, a person familiar with the case told the Associated Press.

DiNardo had help from a co-conspirator and allegedly killed the men separately after feeling cheated or threatened by them during three different drug transactions, the source added.

“Every death was related to a purported drug transaction, and at the end of each one there’s a killing,” the source said.

When Kratz was picked up, he was out on bail for separate charges stemming from two burglary cases in Philadelphia.

Finocchiaro went missing on July 5, while the other three men vanished last Friday.

It’s unclear if he planned to kill them ahead of time. </s> Kim Kardashian attends Harper's Bazaar's celebration of 'ICONS By Carine Roitfeld' at The Plaza Hotel during New York Fashion Week in Manhattan, New York September 9, 2016. — Reuters pic PARIS, JAN 13 — French prosecutors yesterday charged four suspects over the armed robbery of US reality TV star Kim Kardashian in Paris, including one accused of directly taking part in the heist.

Yunice A., 63, was charged with robbing Kardashian at gunpoint and leaving her bound and gagged in a bathroom in her luxury Paris residence in the early hours of October 3, the prosecutor said.

The other three were charged with aiding and abetting the theft of gems worth a total of around €9 million (RM42.35 million), the biggest jewellery theft from an individual that France has seen in more than 20 years.

Marceau B., a 64-year-old Roma, was charged with helping to pass off some of the stolen jewellery.

He has a long criminal record dating back to 1998, with convictions for robbery and carrying counterfeit cash. Six months after leaving jail in late 2011, he was charged with making counterfeit money but was acquitted last year.

The other two charged, 44-year-old Florus H. and Gary M., 27, are accused of tipping off the thieves over Kardashian’s comings and goings.

Another six suspects are still in custody, including four other men ranging in age from 54 to 72, who are suspected of direct involvement in the brazen robbery.

One source close to the probe described the five assailants as “old-school gangsters”.

Wearing police uniforms, they first overpowered a night watchman at the residence in the chic Madeleine area of the French capital where the 36-year-old Kardashian was staying during Paris Fashion Week.

Two of them then burst into the star’s apartment, gagged and bound her at gunpoint and locked her in a bathroom before helping themselves to gems including a 20-carat diamond ring worth some €4 million.

A total of 17 people were arrested on Monday, including Pierre “Pierrot” B., a 72-year-old convicted cocaine dealer suspected of taking part in the heist, who was picked up in a villa in the south of France.

Another suspected of taking direct part in the heist is aged 61 and nicknamed “Blue Eyes”.

He was sentenced in 2003 to eight and half years in jail for international cocaine trafficking after being busted with two tonnes of the drug at a Paris airport.

“They thought it would be the heist of the century but they made a lot of mistakes,” one investigator said.

Notably, the star’s €30,000 diamond necklace was found in the street by a passer-by hours after the heist.

Seven suspects have been released including a chauffeur who was used by Kardashian during her stay.

His brother remains in custody, suspected of tipping off the thieves that Kardashian’s bodyguard was absent on the night of the robbery and giving them details about the residence.

The bodyguard, who was providing security for her sister Kourtney at a Paris nightclub at the time, no longer works for the family.

Some of those still in custody have confessed to their involvement, a source close to the probe said, without elaborating.

Two suspects who remain at large have been sighted in Antwerp, Belgium, the hub of the global diamond trade.

Investigators fear some of Kardashian’s jewels have already been sold, as raids against suspects have turned up €200,000 in cash.

The diamond ring, much photographed and easily recognisable, would be especially difficult to pass off, experts say.

Such gems are often recut into smaller stones, and police say Kardashian’s ring could lose three-quarters of its value after being reworked. — AFP </s> A Valley Stream man has been arrested and charged with burglarizing the Five Towns Islamic Center in Hewlett on Christmas Day and again on New Year’s Day, police said.

Huzaifa Shafeeq, 22, was awaiting arraignment Monday on two counts of burglary in the third degree, Nassau County police said.

He was arrested at his home on Fairfax Street at 6:18 p.m. Sunday and charged with entering the Islamic Center through a window and taking an undisclosed amount of cash from a charity box on both days, police said. </s> Police say a man stole from a Long Island mosque's charity donations box on Christmas and New Year's Day.Huzaifa Shafeeq was arraigned on burglary charges Monday, when bail was set at $1,500. There was no immediate response to a message left with the Legal Aid Society, which represented him.Nassau County police say the 22-year-old got in through a window at the Islamic Center of the Five Towns, in Hewlett, and took cash from a charity box on the two Sunday holidays.Islamic Center board member Iqbal Rasheed says the amount taken wasn't large. He says the center's leaders felt the thief needed help, so they called police.He says he doesn't know Shafeeq personally.
Authorities seek three men after they rob $6 million on New Year's Eve from the offices of high-end jewelry designer Gregg Ruth in New York City.