A trio of thieves busted through the front door of Bergdorf Goodman in a brazen overnight jewelry heist — and made off with a sweet six-figure score, The Post has learned.
“That thief obviously has good taste,” said John Winkler, luxury retail manager for the Philadelphia-based jewelry designer Paul Morelli, whose expensive creations were targeted inside the ritzy retailer’s jewelry department.
Red-faced store officials are still trying to piece together an inventory of the stolen baubles, said a source familiar with the investigation. The haul is expected to be worth “at least hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the source added.
Almost all of the 3:30 a.m. break-in was caught on security cameras both inside and outside the store, law-enforcement sources said.
The footage shows two men leaving a parked car on 57th Street, near Fifth Avenue, and approaching the department store’s front entrance. One, in a hooded black sweatshirt, breaks the glass door pane while the other stands over him, trying to block the view of passersby.
The hammer-wielding thief then climbs through the jagged hole he busted open as his partner saunters back to the car, where a getaway driver sits behind the wheel.
Once inside, the thief makes a beeline to two glass display cabinets showcasing Morelli’s pricey pieces. He was recorded bashing the cases with his hammer and snatching up the loot.
He slinks out the same way he came in.
A stunned security guard discovered the caper and called cops — but the bandits were long gone when police arrived, sources said.
“They definitely had to plan it,” a law-enforcement source said. “Who dares to break into a store like that? Crazy!”
By yesterday afternoon, the damaged displays had been perfectly enclosed in white plywood and one was surrounded with velvet ropes.
The shattered front door had been replaced with a white one and a sign reading, “Our apologies for the inconvenience.”