A crew of “smash-and-grab” robbers struck Cartier’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in broad daylight Thursda🐻y — and made off with 16 watches worth about $700,000.
Five crooks entered the luxury jewelry shop through a sꩵide door at around 12:30 p.m., shoved past an unarmed guard and s๊mashed open the nearest display case using two hammers, police sources said.
The gloved bandits scooped up as many timepiecesಌ as they could — leaving just one, a source said.
By the ti﷽me the other guards could react, the cr🅘ew was gone.
About a dozen workers and a half-dozen customers wer𝐆e inꦛside the store during the heist.
“It happened so fast that people really didn’t know what was going on,” a police source said. “They heard the smashing of the display 𝄹case, but they thought it was an accident outside. And the perps🦩 ran out before the customers realized anything.”
Sources said the robbers first tri🌳ed to hit the nearby Wempe watch and jewelry store, but were thrown out by a guard. They went to Cartier a few minutes later.
A constru𒁃cti♑on worker said he saw them casing the store.
“They were small, didn’t look like big guys o𓂃r anything,” he said. “They were just looking through the window. It didn’t look like they could afford anything in there.”
Nicholas Basoukos, manager of Hellenis Jewelry across Fifth A💯venue, said cops showed him pictures of the smashed case.
“Completely broken on the ♊top. Everything was missꦯing from what I saw,” Basoukos recalled.
Kedar Nesby, a security worker at a nearby store, said th෴at while the block is among the most heavily guarded in the city, the thieves were likely emboldened because “they’ve got all the cops down in Times Square” overseeing pre-Super Bowl festivities.
Cartier said in a statement that no one was hurt.
A Post r✃eporter later observed about 15 employees in the shop drinking champagne and wine. One worker said it was a prescheduled meeting.
Police sources said they believe ♈the theft is linked to at least six other smash-and-grabs.
The largest previous haul was about $40,000 worth of bling stolen from the Golden Nug꧅ge𝐆t jewelry store on Oct. 29 in downtown Manhattan.
On Nov. 11, a Tourneau display case was hit at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Columbus Circle. Two suspects🐬 were busted after a witness saw 🦄them hop in a cab and called cops.
Three Rolexes worth a total 💯of $37,000 were stolen. They🐻 were not recovered.
Additional reporting by Gillian Kleiman and Daniel Prendergast