It took about 30 seconds yesterday for four thieves to steal more than $500,000 worth of watches from Boyd’s in Center City, police said.
Lt. Frank Vanore said two of the robbers entered the posh men’s store, on Chestnut Street near 18th, about 2:15 p.m.
The bandits aimed a silver handgun at a Boyd’s security guard’s head, then sprayed the guard and another employee in the face with pepper spray, said Capt. Sharon Seaborough, of Central Detectives.
While a handful of customers cowered on the floor, two more crooks dashed into the store and smashed a pair of display cases with hammers, Seaborough said.
Their prize: 16 watches, made by designer manufacturers Harry Winston and Audemars Piguet. The crooks fled the store and got away on congested Chestnut Street.
Seaborough said the quartet apparently drove their dark-colored, four-door sedan through Boyd’s parking lot on Chestnut to Ranstead Street.
The two security guards did not need to be hospitalized. No other injuries were reported.
Seaborough said tipsters can contact Central Detectives at 215-686-3047.
Despite the robbery, the store hosted a film crew last night as planned, said Michelle Carchedi, Boyd’s creative director.
The crew was shooting scenes for a comedy film, “The Best and the Brightest,” starring Neil Patrick Harris and Bonnie Somerville, and is using Philly locations as stand-ins for New York City, Carchedi said.
Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.
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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.
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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.
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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.
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