A group of thieves smashed the window of a fur store on the Upper East Side to break in and steal over $1 million worth of fur on Christmas Eve, according to the the manager and police.
Surveillance video obtained by NBC 4 New York shows one of the suspects throwing a brick into the window of the Dennis Basso Inc. store on Madison Avenue, near East 68th Street, just before 5 a.m. Saturday.
The man uses his body to break through the glass, and a second man goes in right behind him, only to get hit in the head with a metal beam. A third man is also seen walking into the store, which carries some fur coats worth $100,000.
"He went directly where the expensive stuff is," said store manager Achilleas Georgiads. "He knew where the stuff was. He knew the store for sure."
"I came here, found the door smashed. Police were here already, the hangers on floor, store smashed, a lot of merchandise missing," he said.
Over $1 million worth of Russian Sable fur was stolen, according to the manager. The fur coats were handmade in New York City.
Police are looking for the thieves.
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"If they can sleep at night after what they did, there's nothing else to say," Georgiads said.
Animal rights group PETA responded to the break-in in a statement, saying that animals were the only victims of the heist.
"It serves Dennis Basso right for peddling fur stolen from its original owners—the sables, chinchillas, and other animals," PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in the statement.
