A bougie bandit has been arrested for stealing $20,000 of booty from high-end boutiques in NYC in the past five months – and in one case even stripped down a store mannequin, police sources said.
Jeffrey Gonzalez, who has 76 arrests on his record, allegedly stole fashion merchandise that included pricey Coach bags, a $2,300 Falconeri coat and a $3,400 Acne Studios jacket, the sources said.
In his most stunning heist, the 48-year-old strolled into into Zadig Voltaire Boutique on Washington Street in the Meatpacking District on Feb. 3 and allegedly stripped the clothes right off a dummy, a law enforcement source said.
“He disrobed the mannequin,” the source said.
He made off with a bag worth $498 and a Liston leather jacket worth $798, for a grand total of $1,296 in the mannequin mugging, the sources said.
Gonzalez was suspected in a pattern of nine heists that began Dec. 20 when he walked into the Falconeri shop on Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District and swiped a jacket worth $2,300 and a vest priced at $475 right off the rack, the sources said.
Then, on Jan. 27, he strolled into a Coach store on Prince St. in SoHo and removed $1,650 worth of bags, officials said.
In the following month, he allegedly picked up the pace, hitting Acne Studios in the West Village and grabbing a $3,400 coat, the sources said. He also allegedly pilfered about $3,000 in Prada and other designer shades from two Sunglass Huts in Soho, officials said.
He walked into a Gucci store at One World Trade Center on March 25 and stole a handbag that was selling for nearly $4,000 and a silk twill scarf worth $240, the sources said.
Finally, on April 13, Gonzalez walked into the Moschino store on Wooster Street in Soho with a female accomplice. The woman ran out of the store but Gonzalez was nabbed with a purse worth $2,145 and arrested, officials said.
He is in jail on Rikers Island on $15,000 bail on three counts of grand larceny, city records show.
Retail theft is down 8% so far this year — from 17,002 to 15,653 — citywide but it’s up 57.2% over five years ago, according to NYPD data as of April 13.
