Police from the 109th Precinct are looking for a suspect who wore a black burqa to a jewel heist at a Murray Hill home across from Kissena Park on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 6.
The burqa-wearing burglar and an accomplice, who was dressed in all-black clothing, broke into a home on Oak Avenue near 163rd Street through a kitchen window at around 5:30 p.m. while the homeowner was away for nearly three hours.
The burglars went to a bedroom and found and took a jewelry box. The suspects were seen on video surveillance leaving the home through the same kitchen window, an NYPD spokesman said Wednesday.
The homeowner returned to the home at around 5:40 p.m. and found the open kitchen window and called the NYPD. Police requested a K-9 unit and conducted a canvas of the neighborhood and Kissena Park. The search was negative, and the suspects remain at large more than a week later. The homeowner told detectives that the stolen jewelry has an estimated value of $10,000.
The NYPD spokesman could not provide a description of the jewel thieves or their gender.
Anyone with information regarding this jewel heist is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are confidential.
Through May 11, the 109th Precinct has reported 174 burglaries so far in 2025, 27 more than the 147 reported at the same point last year, an increase of 18.4%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
