Dramatic surveillance video showed a group of thieves dressed in black bust through the front window of a high-end boutique in New Jersey, then swarm the store and make off with luxury handbags worth thousands of dollars.
The four suspects struck in the middle of the night at the store in Montclair, forcing their way in through the window. They can be seen on the video blowing right past a rack of clothes, instead heading right for the designer handbag that were on a back wall.
In less than a minute, the thieves were gone.
"They were in and out in 40 seconds. So they knew where to go. Obviously we were scoped out beforehand because they knew exactly where to go," said Arlene Carrini, the owner of the shop. "We had just done a Tiktok — we normally don’t keep all of the high end designer bags together."
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The merchandise at the boutique is half consignment, half brand new. And while she didn't want to say what the exact value of the stolen bags was, Carrini called it "a significant amount" in lost profit.
"It was heart-wrenching, like I was punched in the gut. It’s such a loss that you feel," she told NBC New York.
Carrini and her husband took to social media earlier in the week to warn the community. She said other consignment shops have since come forward with similar stories.
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"I would assume that they come in and they learn the lay of the land beforehand, just from what the detectives tell us and from speaking with other consignment shops who’ve reached out, who saw our post on social media, and said the same thing happened to them," she said.
The masked men could be seen on security camera footage getting away in a BMW. The front window of the store was replaced soon after, but the shelves remain empty.
"I just would love to protect the retail consignment world and just forewarn everyone that they should probably come up with other security measures," said Carrini. "I’m sure things will change but I don’t know how. Day by day, we’ll be doing what we need to do."
Montclair police did not respond to a request for comment.
