NYPD Seeking Male Duo That Allegedly Stole From Boutique Dressed As Women
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are looking for a couple of thieves who hit a high-end clothing store and walked off with its two costly items. What's unusual is the devilish duo appeared to be men dressed in women's clothing.
The surveillance video shows the two would-be customers making off with expensive handbags from the A. Turen boutique on Stanton Street on the Lower East Side at around 2:20 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
"These people are so professional that they know what they're doing. They cover their tracks," store owner Ashley Turen told CBS 2's John Slattery.
The pair allegedly went to try on Kimberly Ovitz spandex leggings in extra small before they went to the dressing rooms and grabbed two collectable bags -- the most expensive items in the store.
"They were two vintage, hand-painted Chanel bags that I happened to paint myself, and you can't get them again," Turen said, adding that the bags were valued at $3,000 each.
Turen realized that the pair had left the store and ran after the thieves.
"They got into a sort of champagne-colored SUV and drove off," Turen said, adding that they got away too quickly for her to get a license plate number.
The two characters, thought to be men dressed as women, include a 6-foot-2 black man in his mid-40s. He was wearing a tight-fitting orange dress and gray wig and is said to look like Jamie Foxx's character "Wanda" in the show, "In Living Color."
The other suspect is described as a 5-9 black man in his mid-40s in a snake-skin print coat and black wig.
The owner thinks the duo has been pulling heists in other Downtown shops.
So, shop owners should be on the lookout for thieves who may be wearing skin-tight, orange argyle, or a snake-skin print trench coat, or perhaps something equally eye-catching.
Detectives have fingerprinted the store, hoping to get further leads on the culprits.
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