(The following story appearing in todays NY Post was reported HERE by YWN on Moday afternoon:) Thieves hid behind a fake chimney to cut a hole in the roof of a Brooklyn bank – then made off with the contents of 60 safe-deposit boxes, police sources told The Post.
The burglars – captured on surveillance cameras – operated heavy-duty blowtorches normally used under water to slice through the roof and enter the Astoria Federal Savings Bank on East Second Street and 18th Avenue in Borough Park.
Bank employees discovered the break-in yesterday morning.
The powerful tools were left at the scene and at a nearby construction site. A perfectly extracted circular slab of concrete from the roof was found nearby.
The caper set off a panic among customers, dozens of whom rushed to the bank to see whether their valuables were stolen.
“I have my jewelry, my valuable papers in the box!” one elderly woman cried.
“What am I going to do? There’s no insurance.”
Nazme Begum, 23, said she had a safe-deposit box with gold and important papers, including her children’s birth certificates.
“I’m sick over this. I purposely use the bank because it’s supposed to be safer than my house,” she said.
Another woman said she has had her box for 40 years and was devastated to think she might have lost “valuable pictures of my family that I can’t replace.”
She stood for hours in front of the bank, hoping to find out whether she was one of the victims.
Last night, bank officials still couldn’t tell which boxes were broken into because cops were combing the safe area for clues.
On the surveillance video, taken from a neighboring restaurant, at least three bandits can be seen climbing a ladder to the adjacent building to gain access to the bank’s roof.
The crew set up a false chimney to hide behind while they worked.
Brocha Landau, who owns Dougie’s Barbecue, said he grew suspicious a week ago, when his surveillance camera was stolen from outside his restaurant.
“I warned them [the bank], but they just didn’t take me seriously,” he said.
Astoria spokesman Brian Edwards said it was unclear whether box holders would be reimbursed.
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12 Responses
im sorry for all the people who lost important stuff. hamukom ymale chesronuch. its adding to the matzav hashem is creating upon us, that we should realize that nothing is safe, only hashem! the banks all came down, and now the safe deposits also! we need hashems mercy now!
#1 is so right.
It also helps to know that sooner or later we all end up in a “BOX”.
The real things which will go into storage are Mitzvos & Maassim Tovim.
arent all the bank nationalized now like they do in Venezuela?
nowecant, not quite. More nationalized as a whole than before this mess, but principally private companies even for those that are receiving bail-out money in exchange for stock/ownership share.
The bank should check their mezuzos.
The banks,are irresponsible. They should of had a few cameras on top of the roof.or on a adjecent building. The cops were called after the alarm went off,and they didnt see anything,so they left. Why didnt they bother to check the roof? with helicopters yet,as they do when they are looking for muggers,or other human waste. Story sounds fishy,maybe like an inside job. The bank was renovated last year,perhaps,the construction company knew a little bit too much. The banks,should reimburse the customers just like on 9/11 they are responsible for the welfare and safekeeping of their client’s valuables.
Just a Quick tip:
Not to minimize the “aveido” here,
but birth certificates is really no problem to duplicate, call one of the gov offices.
And as far as old photos go they really shoul be scanned into a computer, ( and backup on a couple of cd’s. it’s really cheap).
And the same goes for valuable documents ( to an extent ).
As far as jewelery goes, well, who wears real jewelery today. You either wear costume jewelery because you keep the real ones in the safe. Or you wear costume ’cause u can’t afford real.
Question from Hashem: “Is ANYTHING safe? Rely on ME and ME alone”.
Obviously the situation is devastating for anyone who lost their things. The message, however is for us. There’s a reason this didn’t happen in Kansas or somewhere else, rather right here in our neighborhood — so WE get the message, loud and clear.
Egel Hazahav is being destroyed. All our physical reliance is being taken away. We soon will be completely spiritual after Mashiach comes…Hashem is preparing us
I think this news story is a hoax. Has anyone seen this news story on any other secular news site? I haven’t. I believe it’s an Adar story.
Editors Note: Do you consider the NY Post, or Channel 2 (WCBSTV / CBS2 HD) “secular”? Or are they also playing a Purim joke?
It is not a hoax! I was at the bank yesterday. 60 out of 2900 boxes were emptied. It was on Brooklyn news.
I stand corrected. It was strange though that the NY Times, NY Daily News, AP, did not pick up the story. No press release by Astoria found either.. NY Post story was written by a yid.. so I surmised that this was not a true event.
I went to the bank inside the where they keep the safe deposit boxes. All the large safe deposit boxes were broken and empty; it was a scary thing to see.