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Long Island Designer Consignment Shops Targeted By Thieves With High-End Taste

ROSLYN, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A brazen pair of thieves are targeting designer consignment shops across Long Island with a penchant for a particularly high-end product.

But as CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported Wednesday, these robbers may not have been banking on cameras catching them in the act.

A Birkin bag -- the status symbol immortalized by "Sex and the City," paraded by the rich and famous, and now the target by thieves with extravagant taste.

A well-heeled couple was caught on camera in Rivival Boutique in Roslyn. With the manager's back turned, the man whisks the $12,000 Blue Hermes Birkin handbag from a high shelf and moments later slips it under a coat, Gusoff rpeorted.

"We are standing right next to them and at this point he has the bag under his jacket," said Elyssa Rosenbaum, owner of Revival Boutique.

Cameras are rolling as he passes the Birkin to a female accomplice in the dressing room, Gusoff reported.

"You see the blue? And right underneath, she grabs it," said Satira. "It's sickening. You feel like how did they do this to us? How did they get away with it?"

And this wasn't the only shop to fall victim. Five stores have been ripped off from the North Shore to the Hamptons after the duo came calling.

"Very knowledgeable, they knew their designers. She was wearing an Hermes bag," said Stefani Satira, manager of Revival Boutique.

Gone missing from Hamptons boutiques:

  • $18,000 Ralph Lauren bag
  • $16,500 Birkin bag
  • and a $14,000 Birkin bag that was on a high shelf

"I think she had a retractable stick, kind of like a selfie stick, where she was able to knock it off and catch it and run out the front door," said Marc Deleon, owner of Perfect Purse in Southampton.

Professionals who know what they're after, know how to distract.

"They had a plan. They knew what they were doing, and they walked right out no problem," said Rosenbaum.

At Revival, workers believe the same pair walked out with costly Chanel bags two years ago. The same MO, but that time it appeared the man dressed as a woman, Gusoff reported.

In that incident, one of the two suspects wears a full skirt to conceal the luxury loot.

The value of the stolen merchandise adds up to more than $100,000. The cases are under investigation by East Hampton, Southampton and Nassau County police.

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