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Video: Home Invasion Costs Rich Guy $300K In Turtle Bay
By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 5, 2011
Modified Oct 5, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 5, 2011
Modified Oct 5, 2011
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George Bardwil, the linen king of New York, was lounging with his friends in his posh Turtle Bay apartment Monday afternoon when two gentleman came to his door with guns and bad intentions. The eccentric millionaire—who in 2009 struck his housekeeper so hard with an ashtray she wound up in intensive care and then accused cops of stealing his $187,000 diamond- and emerald- encrusted gold belt buckle—tells the Post, "There was a buzz at the door. I assumed it was somebody I knew. There was a large black male with a gun. We were all tied up and relieved of our watches, wallets, money."
He believes the men had been in his East 51st Street home before, because the invaders knocked out the surveillance system he has installed in his home, and they knew exactly where to find his safe, which they proceeded to clean out. Bardwil, who is the semi-retired CEO of Bardwil Home, which he inherited from his grandfather, says he can't remember whether the safe was locked, but he tells City Room it contained a collection of antique currency, including 10 $1,000 bills, and several watches worth $50,000 to $100,000 each, including a diamond-encrusted Louis Vuitton watch. Whatever! "I make 10 times that in one month," he tells the News.
The whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes, and then Bardwil and his friends were able to free themselves from their binds. He believes the perpetrators likely cased his apartment during one of his wild parties. "I’d invite 10 people, and there’d be 100. And they’d go on for two days,” he tells the Post, adding he would sometimes lock himself in the bedroom to get away from the party animals. "I was lucky there was so little in there, and I was lucky nobody got hurt. They were definitely not nice people." But they were caught on surveillance video before they shut down the system:
Tagged
george bardwill
home invasion
turtle bay
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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