Some by-now nattily dressed and accessorized Grinches almost ruined a Hamptons charity shopping event hosted by Kelly Ripa and Donna Karan on Saturday — by driving off with a truck trailer filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in designer goods destined for sale to benefit ovarian-cancer research.
The heartless crooks broke into a warehouse in Hauppauge on Wednesday night, hooked their vehicle up to one of four trailers being stored inside and drove off, police and other sources said.
Inside the trailer were high-end clothing and accessories from 40 labels, including Ralph Lauren, Nicole Miller, J Brand, Lauren Millen and Helen Kaminski — all of which were left with empty booths at the 17th annual Super Saturday charity benefit for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund in Water Mill.
“It was a big, big, big truck — I understand it was a semi,” said Corie McCabe, a spokesperson for Henri Bendel, which lost some 300 handbags, jewelry pieces, beach towels and electronics accessories valued at around $20,000.
About half of the robbed designers were able to quickly raid their own warehouses and rush replacement goods over to the benefit.
“I went to my president, and he said ‘We still have to make this happen,’ ” McCabe recalled of company president Chris Fiore, who told her, “ ‘Go to the flagship on Fifth Avenue and grab some stuff.’ And I went in and I said, ‘I’ll take two of these, and two of these,’ ” and I filled up 16 boxes.”