Brooklyn Heights

Shopkeeper injured in violent jewelry store robbery on Court Street in Brooklyn Heights

May 25, 2017 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle
The proprietor of a jewelry repair shop on Court Street in Brooklyn Heights was savagely pistol whipped and robbed Thursday afternoon.  Photos by Mary Frost
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A rush hour robbery of a jewelry repair shop on busy Court Street in Brooklyn Heights turned violent on Thursday when robbers savagely pistol whipped the shop’s proprietor, tied his hands behind his back with zip ties and made off with piles of cash, jewelry and gold.

Three men wearing construction hats and masks burst into Court Jeweler at 60 Court St., next to O’Keefe’s Bar, at roughly 5:21, according to police and witnesses. Another man stayed outside the store as a lookout.

After robbing the shop of items reportedly valued at half a million dollars, the robbers sped off towards the Court Street subway station with the victim chasing after them.

“He had on a ski mask, and he had a construction hat on top of the ski mask,” Rachel, who witnessed the aftermath of the attack, told the Brooklyn Eagle.

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The victim’s face was gushing blood, she said.

The shopkeeper “was chasing the person who robbed him around [the block]. He chased him over there and back down and ran back again, and that was it,” Rachel said.

The robbers dropped the masks and hats as they ran north towards the subway.

A witness told this reporter that the crooks also dropped stacks of money on the subway platform before boarding a train. Police have not confirmed this.

The victim was taken to Methodist Hospital, cops at the scene said.

Court Jeweler was described by a Downtown Brooklyn Partnership posting as an “old school jewelry repair shop that’s serious about the craft with an attention to detail to match.”

Court Street is full of cops after the robbery. Photo by Mary Frost

Many people who formed a crowd on the street said the attack was a terrible shame.

“That man’s been here for years,” said one bystander, referring to the proprietor. “My mother used to shop here.”

Neighbors said they were worried about what happened to Stella, a rescued German Shepherd who would always sit either on the floor behind the shopkeeper’s feet or in the lower half of his display window.

There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing, an NYPD spokesperson told the Eagle early Friday.


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