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Rich Park Ave Residents Unsure How Much Of Their Jewelry's Been Stolen
By
Ben Yakas
Published Aug 15, 2013
Modified Aug 15, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Aug 15, 2013
Modified Aug 15, 2013
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A lot of obscenely rich people live at luxury condo building 740 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side, including New York's richest man and Tea Party bankroller David Koch, and other billionaires such as Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, and designer Vera Wang. And it seems someone has been stealing jewelry from some of these residents over the last few months—the only problem is, nobody is quite sure exactly how much has been stolen, because rich people apparently have a hard time keeping track of all their stuff.
According to the Post, more than $100K in jewelry (including wedding rings and watches) has been reported stolen in four separate incidents since May. In the first incident, a watch was stolen from someone on the 6th floor sometime between May 30th and June 6th, but the victim didn't report it until June 26th; in another one of the incidents, a watch and earrings disappeared from the 14th floor, home to shipping heir Spyros Niarchos and billionaire Israel Englander. It was also reported on June 26th.
But there may have been even more thefts that have gone unnoticed (or unreported) thus far because people don't know whether they're missing something: "Residents are paranoid, at least four different apartments have been burglarized," a source told them. "Most of the victims didn't realize when their items went missing. Many people have access, including service staff and workers." The alarming news made some horrified residents clutch their pearls—only to realize their pearls were not there!
Tagged
740 park avenue
Jewelry
police
rich people
rich people problems
theft
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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