Crime & Safety
Items Recovered In Jewelery Store Robbery
The estimated $100,000 worth of jewelery was found in the trunk of a car.
A little before 11 Wednesday morning, two men in suits were observed leaving A.I. Poland Jewelers in Manayunk.
They apparently brought good news with them during their visit.
The loot taken during a brazen, daytime robbery Tuesday at the longtime Main Street business had been recovered.
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The sight of the detectives leaving 4347 Main St. signaled something else; the store’s owner, Victor Ostroff, was apparently not about to let the incident get the best of him, since he opened his doors at 10 a.m., his normal opening time.
Ostroff was working at his store Tuesday morning when a man posing as a customer entered and asked to see an item. Ostroff ventured to the back of the store to retrieve said item, and when he returned to the front of the store, he was struck on the back of the head with the butt of a semi-automatic handgun.
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A female employee working the front counter at the time had been confronted by the gunman when Ostroff went to the rear of the business.
After holding his victims at gunpoint, the robber bound the two with plastic ties and called in an accomplice. The two then ransacked the store, spending a good 30 to 40 minutes stealing anything they could get their hands on, according to police at the scene of Tuesday’s armed robbery, an extreme rarity for otherwise crime-free Manayunk.
During a brief chat inside his store Wednesday, Ostroff said he was just glad he was able to walk away from the incident.
Ostroff, a humble and quiet business owner who has been a fixture on Main Street for decades, said he received seven staples to his head after getting pistol-whipped by the suspect, who police described as a black man about six feet tall wearing jeans, a wig and sporting a closely-cropped gray goatee.
Still, despite the slight head wound, Ostroff said he was otherwise OK.
During the brief chat, Ostroff paused to take a phone call from someone inquiring as to his well-being. From what could be ascertained, it was a friend or customer checking in on Ostroff’s status.
Ostroff assured the person he was OK, further stating that no customer jewelry was taken during the robbery. He also said he was glad to hear police recovered most of the stolen items.
According to Officer Tanya Little, a police department spokeswoman, officers received a call from a passerby who said they saw a vehicle speeding away from the robbery scene Tuesday, and was concerned it may have been involved in the heist.
When officers caught up to the vehicle, which had been parked on the 200 block of Kalos Street, it was unoccupied, but officers were able to recover the jewelry taken during the heist, she said.
The stolen items, worth an estimated $100,000, were found in the trunk of the vehicle, Little said.
She said no suspects have been arrested, but police have a good idea of who they’re looking for.
Patch will continue to bring you the latest updates in this case.
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