A savvy robber who clearly understood the customs of the Orthodox Jewish community waited until late Friday night before breaking into a Borough Park bank to pull off a heist.
The neighborhood is always quiet Friday and Saturday as the mostly Orthodox Jewish community observes the Sabbath.
The thief broke into HSBC Bank on 13th Avenue and 44th Street – in the very heart of the shopping district in the large Brooklyn Chassidic neighborhood – via a rooftop hatch.
Holes were cut in a chain-link fence at the back of the building. Bank workers found a ladder propped against the building at 8:30 am Monday morning, along with the open rooftop hatch, police said.
The thief cut a hole through the ceiling of a vault, and stole safety deposit boxes filled with customers’ jewelry and other valuables, police sources said.
The robber also took $280,000.
Authorities are still trying to figure out how the thief managed to break in without being caught on surveillance camera.
Before employees left work on Friday the bank’s alarm had been broken. Officials suspect the two events are related, sources said.
Neighbors were stunned when they saw the police tape surrounding the building, and many told the newspaper they found the incident deeply disturbing. “It makes me feel insecure,” one said.
