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A Case of a Taste for the Luxurious Things in Life

Posted On : May-13-2010 | seen (704) times | Article Word Count : 731 |

Michael Kors gold leather satchel bags, hand-constructed Japanese denim jeans when start at $260 and about $23,000 worth of designer sunglasses.
Michael Kors gold leather satchel bags, hand-constructed Japanese denim jeans when start at $260 and about $23,000 worth of designer sunglasses. The burglar now tormenting shop owners in one of New York’s fashionable neighborhoods arrives in the early morning hours, when the credit-card wielding customers who descend during the day are nowhere in sight.
With a crowbar and other tools, the burglar, the police said, pry open doors or simply smashes the glass to get inside. He grabs as much as he can and runs. He has struck 14 times since August, including at least 6 times in SoHo. In fact, the Michael Kors boutique on Prince Street where those beguiling gold bags retail for $1,495 each was robbed three times.
In SoHo, where this type of crime is rare, the burglar’s affinity for chic, of-the-moment luxury goods has provoked not only worry but also an appreciation of his taste and style.
“Over all, it sounds like the crime spree speaks to the tastes of the city at large,” said Izzy Grinspan, who edits a fashion blog called Racked NY. When told that a Marc Jacobs store on Bleecker Street had also been robbed, Ms. Grinspan said, “Everyone wants to get in there, even the crime rings.”
On Thursday, the police identified a suspect, Mark Perkins, 49, and said his DNA had been found at one of the crime scenes. They also said they believed that Mr. Perkins worked with one or two accomplices, though they did not know their identities. As of Friday night, he had not been taken into custody.
Other questions that remained unanswered were how the stores were chosen and what was done with the stolen goods. The burglars were not always successful. At Dolce & Gabbana on West Broadway, they broke off the door handle but apparently were kept out by a heavy tempered glass door.
And for all their apparent planning, the burglars might have forgotten that in 2010, security cameras are as common as Canal Street counterfeit goods. Security cameras captured several of the burglaries, employees at some of the stores said.
At Jean Shop on West Broadway, two burglars were videotaped using a crowbar to pry open the glass door, which quickly shattered. Within minutes, they managed to abscond with 130 pairs of jeans, as well as three leather jackets, a sales associate said. The associate, Peter Brandwein, said the suspects could have shown more refined taste, adding that the jeans were of uncommon sizes and not the latest style. “They weren’t pros,” Mr. Brandwein said. “I don’t think they knew a lot about the store they were breaking into.”
Still, had the thieves heard about the shop on HBO? The shop figures into a new show about two young men who are trying to start a line of denim jeans and visit Jean Shop for ideas.
The store has decided to use its roll-down gate. “It’s not going to happen again,” Mr. Brandwein said. “You’d have to be like James Bond.”
Merchants and shoppers said they were shocked that the robbers would be so brazen in a busy neighborhood. But Jen Schwertman, who tends bar on Prince Street, said the area was fairly quiet at night once the stores closed.
Ms. Grinspan said the crimes seemed unusual because most upscale stores took extensive security precautions. “It’s amazing how long they’ve kept it up,” she said, “and that they haven’t been caught.”
Calls to the corporate offices of Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs were not returned on Friday.
A man who lives in an apartment above the Michael Kors store, Ramon Sanchez, said he had noticed a security guard posted inside the shop after the last robbery. “I thought it was probably some crazy guy who broke the glass,” Mr. Sanchez said, “not a robbery.”
Some neighborhood merchants were reluctant to talk about the robberies. A group of them had considered pooling money and paying for private security guards, said Jennifer Joyce, the executive director of retail development for the Association of Community Employment Programs for the Homeless, which runs the SoHo Partnership. But they abandoned the idea, she said.
“I guess people don’t want to draw attention to it so stores will still rent down here and shoppers don’t get discouraged,” Ms. Joyce said.


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