Two debt-ridden jewelers from the diamond district were convicted today of faking a $7 million robbery by using “thugs dressed as Hasids.” Although jewelers Atul Shah and Mahaveer Kankariya didn’t say that they got the idea from Snatch, Benicio Del Toro’s character, who also sported a false beard, black hat, and long black coat, seems like the likeliest inspiration. Here is how it went wrong.
1. They used fake Hasids. To fake a robbery. In the diamond district.
2. They tried to destroy the video surveillance recorder in their office by pouring drain cleaner into the device three hours before the robbery.
3. Although the recorder died midway through the robbery, it functioned long enough to capture Shah and Kankariya emptying trays out of their safe two hours before the robbery, buzzing in the Hasids without asking who they were, and leaving them alone in a room with an unlocked safe.
C’mon, guys. If it’s your very first criminal act, you gotta crib from something less complicated than the plot of a Guy Ritchie movie.
Diamond District jewelers found guilty in ‘Snatch’ heist [NYP]
