With trickery, threats, precision timing and a dash of bravado, two armed robbers invaded Tiffany’s fabled emporium in midtown Manhattan late Sunday, the police said, and, after binding four guards and defeating alarm systems, made off with more than $1 million in jewelry — and videotapes that had recorded the whole escapade.
No shots were fired and no one was injured. But it was the costliest robbery in the 157-year history of Tiffany & Company, which had been victimized nine times previously by ambitious shoplifters, smash-and-grab thugs, con artists with elaborate tales and, once, by a man who shot a hole in a sidewalk display window and tried to snare a diamond-and-ruby necklace with a wire.
Investigators said the robbers, who intercepted an unarmed security guard on his way to work at the Art Deco marble and limestone building at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, were selective, choosing some 300 necklaces, bracelets, watches, rings and earrings encrusted with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other gems.
And they appeared to know much — perhaps improbably much — about Tiffany’s security: its guard schedules, the use of intercoms at locked doors, how to turn off alarms and the location of video cameras and keys to the sales floor, with its archipelago of treasure-filled mahogany-and-glass display cases.
“It was a very, very professional job,” said Capt. Salvatore M. Blando, the commander of Third Division detectives. “They were definitely on a schedule. They might have cased the place for a long time. We’re looking into it being an inside job.”
Tiffany, whose name has come to symbolize luxury and understated elegance, issued a discreet statement saying only that the store had been robbed, that no one had been hurt and that its doors would be open as usual today. It gave no estimate of the loss, but noted it was store policy to leave only merchandise of minimal value in the display cases overnight.
“Safety is our first concern,” said Beth Canavan, vice president and general manager of the store. “No Tiffany personnel were harmed. The procedures were followed and the loss, while disturbing, will not affect our service to customers.”
Captain Blando noted that Tiffany was still taking inventory of the stolen items. Sgt. Edward Caro, a Police Department spokesman, said the loss totaled $1,250,000.
With bullet-proof glass over displays in its jewel-studded windows, with nine-foot steel doors, bomb-resistant vaults, alarms, hidden cameras, guards and other precautions, Tiffany’s is often thought to be only slightly more vulnerable than the nation’s gold reserves at Fort Knox.
But the robbers seemed to breeze through the technical problems with the right combination of timing, tricks and threats of force, investigators said. It began at 11:40 P.M. Sunday, as the first of two Tiffany security guards on a midnight-to-8 A.M. shift arrived to replace two guards inside, waiting to go off duty.
The guard wore jeans and a windbreaker, not a uniform, and Captain Blando said, “Obviously they knew who he was.” Action on the Street
One robber — a black man 25 to 27 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall and 200 pounds, wearing a dark-blue windbreaker with a security-type patch on one shoulder and a badge in front — came up behind the guard outside Tiffany and put an arm around his shoulder and an automatic pistol in his ribs, detectives said.
They were joined by the second robber, a black man in his 30’s, 6 feet 1 and 180 pounds, wearing a black bubble-type ski jacket and carrying a black revolver. Both wore black ski caps, but their faces were uncovered.
Together, the three walked to the Tiffany employee and delivery entrance on the 57th Street side of the building, 100 feet east of Fifth Avenue. It is a steel door with a small viewport, two intercoms and a buzzer for entry.
Following the robbers’ instructions, the captain said, the security guard told a guard inside that he was with “my cousins” who wanted to use the bathroom, and they were buzzed in. In a security office inside, the three guards — and a fourth who arrived for work minutes later — were bound with duct tape, hands behind backs.
The robbers also got a key to the main retail sales room on the ground floor, and electronically disabled alarms linked to the merchandise display cases in the room, a baronial chamber with 20-foot ceilings and a decor of marble, mahogany paneling and mirrors framed in ebony.
While one robber watched the guards, the other spent 20 minutes in the sales room, investigators said. Instead of smashing locked glass display cases, he pried wood off their backs to gain access. Lights blazed in the room, but no one on the street could see in, the view being blocked by the window displays and heavy curtains.
Sgt. Michael Keaveney, of the 18th Precinct Robbery Squad, said the robber appeared to be selective about what he took. “He was partial to things with stones in them — diamonds, rubies, whatever,” he said. “He left more than he took.”
Meantime, security cameras whirred, recording the robbery. After completing his haul, the robber returned to the security office and spoke to the guards.
Captain Blando said he asked, “Who’s going to take me upstairs?” referring to a second-floor security office where the cameras had taped everything. Talking Tough
When there were no volunteers, Captain Blando said, “He became very irate and said to the guards, ‘Don’t let me ask again.’ ”
At that point, the guard who had been intercepted first in the street volunteered. He was freed from his bonds and accompanied the robber upstairs. They returned a few minutes later. It was unclear if the robber had all the tapes that had been made.
The guard was rebound, and one of the robbers issued a final warning. The captain quoted him as saying: “We know who you are and where you live, so if you say anything to the police we’re going to get you.”
Then, they left by the door they had entered. It was 12:40 A.M., just an hour after the robbery had begun.
Captain Blando said the guard who had been retaped was not tightly bound; he freed himself in 5 to 10 minutes and called the police.
The four guards, whose names were withheld as witnesses, were unhurt. Sergeant Keaveney said all were men in their 20’s who had worked for Tiffany at least two years.
Tiffany posted a $25,000 reward in the case, and Captain Blando asked anyone with confidential information to call 1-800-577-TIPS or the Manhattan North detectives at 212-767-8422. Past Thefts
Tiffany’s last robbery occurred in 1982, when a man and two women, taking advantage of a momentarily distracted sales clerk, scooped up $300,000 in rings, earrings and bracelets and fled. In 1974, in a theft as simple as a dime-store shoplifting, a man in a business suit got away with a $45,000 diamond-and-ruby choker.
In 1969, a man fired a bullet through a display window and inserted a wire but failed to fish out a diamond-and-ruby necklace. In 1965, a woman managed to swap a $7,500 diamond for one worth $19,800.
In 1958, before Tiffany had shatter-proof windows, some men broke one and took $163,000 in jewels. There had been at least four earlier thefts in 121 years at Tiffany. The company was founded in 1837 by Charles L. Tiffany and John B. Young as a “stationery and fancy goods store” at 259 Park Row, across from City Hall, and a few years later it was looted by thieves.
Four decades later, with the store at 550 Broadway, two men were caught stealing gold and jewelry from its workshop. In the early 1900’s, robbers took three stones worth $80,000 that had been cut from the famed Excelsior Diamond.
Some years later, a woman described by newspapers as “a beautiful blonde” examined a tray of Tiffany engagement rings and told a sales clerk that, while her fiance had left her to pick one, she was unable to choose between two rings — one costing $2,550 and the other $3,250.
Would Tiffany let the salesman go with her to her hotel so her mother, sick-a-bed with a cold, could help her choose? A Pinkerton agent went along, and in her suite the woman took the rings into a bedroom. Some time later, the salesman and the detective looked uneasily at one another and went into the bedroom. A door to the hall was open; the woman — and the rings — were gone.