


Five men were arrested Tuesday for stealing $2 million worth of bling in a pair of daytime gunpoint heists at Manhattan jewelry stores, federal prosecutors announced.
Four of the defendants — Frank DiPietro, Vincent Cerchio, Vincent Spagnuolo and Michael Sellick — made off with at least three diamond pieces, including 73-carat necklace, a six-carat ring and a 17-carat pair of earrings in a robbery at a Madison Avenue store on Jan. 3, prosecutors alleged.
DiPietro, 65, of Red Bank, New Jersey, and Sellick, 67, of Franklin Square on Long Island, were dressed in yellow and orange reflective construction clothes so they could enter the building without raising suspicion, prosecutors claimed.
They got in through a deli entrance in the same building as the jewelry store, which is located in the penthouse and operates by-appointment only, the criminal complaint against them states.
Workers had been preparing to put jewelry in the display window case located on the first floor when DiPietro and Sellick allegedly entered.
DiPietro pointed his gun at an employee saying “give it to me,” and Sellick told the worker to “turn around and get in the closet,” according to the complaint.
One of the two getaway cars the men used was stolen the morning of the robbery with the defendants swapping out its license plate, the complaint alleges.
The men had cased out the joint the day before the theft, prosecutors said.
Then on May 20, DiPietro and Sellick — again donning construction clothes — held up an Elizabeth Street jewelry store. Sellick allegedly pointed a gun at the employees telling them to get on the ground while DiPietro gathered the jewelry, prosecutors claimed.
The men made their escape in a car driven by the fifth defendant Samuel Sore, 25, of Florham Park, NJ — who was also dressed as a construction worker, prosecutors alleged.
They then switched to another car being driven by Spagnuolo, a 65-year-old Monmouth Beach, NJ man, the feds said.
The men again swapped out the license plates for fraudulent ones the morning of the robbery, according to a criminal complaint.
Cops starting pursuing one of the cars after someone at the lower Manhattan store called 911 later that morning. But the driver of the car abandoned it on Montgomery Street in the Lower East Side and fled on foot, the complaint alleges.
The five men are charged with conspiracy, robbery and brandishing a firearm in connection with a violent crime. They each face up to 20 years in jail if convicted on the top count.
“These five defendants allegedly carried out brazen and dangerous daylight robberies of jewelry stores in Manhattan, stealing about $2 million in jewelry at gunpoint,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
“Dressed as construction workers, the defendants allegedly sought to blend into the busy streets around them before pointing guns at the jewelry stores’ employees and carrying out about $2 million in stolen diamonds and other valuable pieces.”
It was not immediately known who their defense attorneys were.