The $680 Marmot coat that sparked the Bryant Park skating rink shooting Saturday is second only to designer belts on city crook’s “must steal” list, police sources told The Post.
“The big thing out there is belts. Belts are getting robbed,” a police source said, adding that expensive belts made by Fendi and Gucci are the top targets for unruly teens and violent thugs looking to up their fashion game.
“As far as clothing, the hot items is belts, especially the Ferragamo belt,” the source said, referring to the $349 belt that made headlines when a black teen bought one at Barney’s but was then cuffed by cops outside and sued claiming a clerk thought he couldn’t afford the pricey purchase.
In September, two men were shot over a Hermes belt in Brooklyn and this summer a Brooklyn man was robbed at gunpoint of a Ferragamo belt, police sources said.
Corey Dunton, 16, allegedly tried to mug Javier Contreras, 20, of his Marmot Mammoth parka on the Midtown rink’s ice – and then shot Contreras with a .22-caliber handgun when he refused to hand it over.
iPhones and the Marmot jacket are still hot targets for fashionable muggers, the sources said.
“It’s like everyone wants a Mercedes and, for thieves, Apple products are the Mercedes of electronics,” a police source said.
“When I was growing up it was the leather bomber jackets and now the Marmot jackets are the same thing,” said another police source.
“It used to be sneakers, but no more. That was an ‘80s thing. Then there were North Face jackets they were stealing, but even those petered out. Now it’s Marmot jackets and Apple products. Those are the most popular,” said another police source.
Air Jordans have been targets since the late-’80s and continue to sporadically spark violence.
The Michael Hoban leather 8-ball jackets were a popular target in the early ’90s.
In the early 2000s it was the T-Mobile Sidekick smartphone.
iPods were popular targets since they were introduced in 2001, with violence related to their thefts spiking nationwide in about 2006.