In a heist straight out of Guy Ritchie’s film “Snatch,” a pair of armed robbers disguised themselves as Hasidic Jews to steal $4 million worth of jewels from a Diamond District wholesaler in broad daylight, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
Dressed in Orthodox garb of black coats and hats – and phony beards – the robbers showed fake IDs to a lobby security guard on New Year’s Eve and took the elevator to the fifth floor of 2 W. 46th St., all while under video surveillance.
The brazen New Year’s bandits then strolled past several additional banks of cameras, and were buzzed through two doors into Dialite Imports before drawing their weapons, police said.
Just before getting buzzed into the second door, the men spray-painted the lens of one surveillance camera, sources said.
The robbers then held up owner Atul Shah and another employee at gunpoint.
Shah was forced to empty the safe of all diamonds and jewels. Then, the invaders tied the two men up with duct tape before slipping out the door unnoticed.
They were in and out in less than five minutes, sources said.
A week later, the crooks are still at large and their identity is unknown, police said.
Aside from the $4 million in diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rings, pendants and necklaces, the thieves also stole the opening scene from 2001’s “Snatch,” in which Benicio Del Toro and a slew of diamond thieves disguise themselves as Hasidic Jews.
There have been other imitators as well.
Earlier this year, Thomas Kenney, a bank robber dubbed the “Bad Hatter” for his various disguises, including that of a Hasidic Jew, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Long Island.
Dialite Imports was open for business yesterday, and neighbors said security had not been significantly changed since the New Year’s heist.
The lobby guard scanned the driver’s licenses of all visitors to the building, and the door to Dialite, decorated with an image of the Hindu god Ganesh, requires visitors to be buzzed in through the intercom system.
Shah, the store’s owner, said Insurance-company investigators told him not to discuss the robbery.
“They told me I cannot say anything right now,” he said.
An insurance adjuster with Lloyd’s of London, who said he was investigating the robbery, told The Post that the take may have been well over $4 million.
In spite of the huge amount of security in the Diamond District, there is so much tangible wealth packed into such a small area that such robberies are not unheard of, merchants said.
“But this is a big one,” the adjuster said. “There were some very big stones in there.”
As to the Hasidic disguise, the investigator called it “comical.”
“Was it Hal loween or was it New Year’s Eve?” he asked.
Diamond mer chants were warned to be especially vigilant about security on New Year’s Eve because of the huge crowds arriving in Midtown en route to Times Square, said Martin Hochbaum, director of the Diamond Dealers Club.
“We put up signs and made announcements to our members that there would be unusual street life on that day,” he said. “Many dealers also closed early.”
Other merchants at 2 W. 46th St. said there is an uneasy feeling in the building.
“I’m worried and I am concerned,” said stone setter Marisol Alvarez, at MCR Gems.