'Hi, I'm back': Brooklyn jewelry store hit for 2nd time by knife-wielding robber
NEW YORK - An armed thief, dressed in a green sweat suit and wielding a knife, stole tens of thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise from a jewelry store in Brooklyn in a terrifying incident caught on camera.
Security camera footage captured the crime inside the Melissa Joy Manning jewelry store in Cobble Hill. The thief's female accomplice watched the door as the thief calmly shoved jewelry into his knapsack and pockets before walking out of the store.
"It's horrifying, it's catastrophic. I'm a small business," Melissa Joy Manning, the owner of the store, told FOX 5 New York.
According to Manning, this was the second time the same armed robber had targeted her store. The first robbery took place in February, also around the same time of day. Manning estimated that her total losses now amount to about $250,000.
Manning said that in this most recent incident, the thief immediately approached an employee and announced his return by saying, "Hi! I'm back."
He then walked through the middle of the store as if he owned it, before approaching the same employee again and saying, "I'm back again. I don't know if you remember me?"
Manning posted the thief's picture on social media, and other jewelry store owners in the area responded, saying that they had seen him case their stores in Cobble Hill and Williamsburg.
Manning had made security improvements after the first robbery, but the suspect changed his tactics, and she fears that the suspect is "not going to stop until he's caught."
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