Metro

Burqa-wearing man steals nearly $1 million in jewelry from Piaget in Hudson Yards

A thief wearing a burqa and armed with a spray bottle made off with nearly $1 million worth of necklaces and watches from a Hudson Yards jeweler on Sunday, police sources said.

The bling bandit, a man dressed in a burqa covering most of his face, walked into the luxury Piaget jewelry store at around 3:55 p.m. and asked to look at a necklace, sources and police officials said.

As the clerk pulled out the necklace, priced at about $21,000, he noticed the man was holding onto one of the store’s watches, according to sources.

When the employee questioned the soon-to-be thief, he whipped out the spray bottle and squirted it in the clerk’s direction before running out of the store, with the necklace and two watches — one priced at $64,000, and the other $715,000 — in tow, police sources said.

Piaget, where some watches are so expensive the price is not even displayed online, valued the loss at around $800,600, sources added.

Sometime Sunday evening, management with Hudson Yard Shops sent out an email to tenants warning them to stay alert.

“Maybe they’ll want to hit another time,” said Peter Young, a senior sales consultant for Watches of Switzerland, of the thief.

“I heard from a sales associate it was a man dressed as a woman, dressed in a burqa,” he added, and that he may have altered his voice to sound “Vaderdesque” — a reference to “Star Wars” antagonist Darth Vader.

Workers from the other jewelry stores crowding the ground floor of Hudson Yards were shocked to hear of the heist.

“It’s awful,” a worker at Cartier located across the hall said.

An administrator at nearby Van Cleef & Arpels who declined to give their name, reasoned it was part of the business.

“I heard about it. It’s crazy, but that’s the jewelry world. Hopefully they’ll catch him,” the admin told the Post.

Other luxury jewelry stores crowd the ground floor of Hudson Yards. On the same hallway as Piaget is Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, and Tiffany’s, while Rolex is around the corner.

The suspect could not be identified because the head covering — typically worn by women in some Muslim cultures — concealed most of the man’s face, police sources said.

Piaget customer Jessica Jiang was shocked the luxe retailer didn’t have better security protocols.

“We feel very sad. Also curious. This kind of jewelry store should have a very high level of security,” she said.

Workers at the Piaget store refused to comment.