Michael Matthews Jewelers occupied an interior corner location on the second floor of Kings Plaza mall.

Ocean’s Eleven this ain’t.

Two brazen thieves pulled off late-morning jewelry heist in one of Brooklyn’s busiest malls today, making off with a sack full of jewelry and setting cops on the hunt.

A man approached Michael Matthew’s Jewelers (5100 Kings Plaza Mall) on the second floor of Kings Plaza at approximately 10:25 a.m. He pulled out a hammer and bashed open the display case in front of the store’s owner, grabbing the merchandise.

The thief then fled towards the East 55th Street entrance of mall, with the owner and a good Samaritan in hot pursuit. As they approached the doors, the perp swung around and flashed a gun, a police source told Sheepshead Bites.

He then made it through the doors, where he met a second accomplice. The two high-tailed it to the parking deck, where they fled in a white minivan.

Police have not yet made an arrest, and are still pursuing the suspects. No description was available from authorities.

Cops and the store’s owners are still calculating the value of the stolen merchandise.

The store owner suffered minor injuries to his hand from the broken glass. No one else was harmed.

This is a breaking news story and may contain inaccuracies. We will update it as more information becomes available. If anyone has more information or additional photos, please send them to tips (at) sheepsheadbites (dot) com.

Police say they’ve caught the man responsible for a pair of burglaries in Brighton Beach that targeted the elderly.

We first told you about the hunt for the perp on January 24, writing that cops were seeking a suspect in two burglaries in which the perpetrator gained the confidence of his victims before stealing their cash and jewelry.

Now they’ve arrested Salvador Morales, 58, of Washington Heights, and charged him with burglary, grand larceny and criminal possession on Friday.

In the two incidents, Morales allegedly followed the seniors to their buildings in Brighton Beach.

NBC reports:

[Morales] told them he was their upstairs neighbor and that water was leaking from his unit into their apartment, according to police.

He said he wanted to inspect the damage so he could pay for them, police said. He then asked the victims for change for a $100 bill so he could leave $50. While in the apartment, he took jewelry and money.

The victims include an 89-year-old woman robbed on December 24 and an 88-year-old woman this past Sunday. The suspect took about $2,400 in cash and several items of jewelry from both. No one was hurt.

A burglar broke the passenger-side windows of at least five vehicles on Shore Boulevard and Beaumont Street in Manhattan Beach.

The vandalism appears to have taken place early Saturday morning. Reader Dimash sent in the accompanying photo and tip, saying that he notified the police.

“Can’t really blame mute swans for this,” Dimash writes in an e-mail.

Overnight car break-ins continue to be a frequent problem in Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach, and is a recurring topic at the 61st Precinct’s Community Council meetings. Thieves smash windows and ransack the cars for anything from loose pennies to GPS devices and merchandise left in the car. The precinct has said in the past that the perpetrators are often drug users seeking to fund their addiction.

Police continue to remind residents not to leave anything of value in an automobile, including pennies in the cup holder. While incidents have been reported all over the neighborhood, dimly lit streets like Shore Parkway in Sheepshead Bay are frequent targets. Try to park on a well-lighted block whenever possible.

Yehuda Sadok (Source: LinkedIn)

Yehuda Sadok, the Brighton Beach man accused of posing as an Israeli secret spy to swindle an elderly widow in an international jewelry deal, has filed a counter-suit against the widow’s daughters in an effort to clear his name.

Going by the moniker Oody Geffen, Sadok was accused by the widow’s daughters of romancing their wealthy, jewelry-dealing mother in order to get her to fork over $20 million worth of inventory for a shady deal with a Saudi sheikh.

The daughters’ suit said he claimed to be a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and dined with Robert DeNiro.

But now Sadok is saying it’s all hooey and the daughters are just bitter that they were written out of the will for being rotten to their mother.

The New York Post reports:

But Sadok denies to Page Six that he ever claimed to be a Mossad agent, and says he met Martin through a mutual friend and ex-FBI agent who asked him to track down an Israeli who’d stolen $1 million in jewels from her. They became friends when he recovered $850,000 of the gems.

“She was a lovely, simple . . . lady who was like my grandmother,” Sadok said. He added that Martin confided she had “two spoiled daughters” she’d lavished with “the best schools, the best clothes,” but they’d “become ‘two devils.’ They were very mean and rude to their mother.”

… Sadok also denied he ever said he was pals with Russian leader Putin (“I wish I was”), or that he claimed to know Robert De Niro, as the suit alleges. He contends that a friend who was a regular on “The Sopranos” was casting a film and trying to get De Niro for a role, and that he’d introduced that TV actor to Martin at her office. “That’s how they got this idea I was a producer,” Sadok said, “and came [up] with this nonsense about De Niro, [who] I never met in my life.”

Surveillance still, or Rorschach test? You tell us.

The police are hunting a suspect believed to have robbed several elderly women in Brighton Beach.

The thief is described as a black male in his late teens or early 20s, of a light to medium build and between 5-foot-6-inches and 5-foot-9-inches, last seen wearing a white scarf obscuring his face.

The suspect is believed to be behind four purse snatchings in Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach since January 21, with all female victims aging in range from 61 to 79 years old.

Here’s a rundown of the incidents as well as some tips from Councilman Chaim Deutsch’s office:

The suspect began his robbery spree on January 21st, when he followed a 62-year-old woman into an elevator inside of a Brighton 12th Street building between Corbin Place and Oceanview Avenue at 3 pm.

The victim heard the suspect say, “It’s freezing out here,” before he snatched the purse from her shoulder.

On January 24th, the suspect followed a 75-year-old woman into a Brighton Third Street building between Brighton Beach Avenue and Bridgewater Court at 2:30 pm, running up behind the victim, before yanking the purse off her shoulder.

On January 25th, the suspect attacked a 61-year-old woman on Brighton Third Street near Brighton Beach Avenue at 9:30 pm, taking her purse.

… A more recent incident occurred on February 5th, only this time the suspect attacked a woman in Manhattan Beach, within the confines of the 61st Precinct.

The victim, a 79-year-old woman, told police that she was on Beaumont Street near Hampton Avenue at 3 pm, when the suspect approached and grabbed her hand bag, before making his escape.

… In addition, Councilman Deutsch is providing the public with tips in order to help them avoid theft and also to help the public provide police with information in the event that theft occurs.

•     The suspect is targeting elderly women, and usually operates during the late afternoon, or early evening. If you feel that you’re being followed, or you notice anything suspicious, call police immediately.

•     If you have been the victim of a robbery, do not hesitate to call police. If your phone has been taken from you, or you do not have a phone, go to a neighbor or nearby store.

•     Do not struggle with the suspect, or incite him to violence in any way.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website, or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

Source: wmfawmfa/Flickr

Area resident Petr Murmylyuk was sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiring to hack into retail brokerage accounts and execute sham trades, the U.S. Attorney announced on Friday.

Murmylyuk, who also went by the name Dmitry Tokar, pleaded guilty in July 2013 to charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He had previously pleaded guilty to charges of identity theft and tax fraud for a separate but related scheme.

According to prosecutors, Murmylyuk admitted to his role in conspiring to steal from online trading accounts at Scottrade, E*Trade, Fidelity and others wit the aid of foreign nations visiting, studying and living in the United States.

Here’s how the scheme went down, according to prosecutors:

Members of the conspiracy first gained unauthorized access to the online accounts of brokerage firm customers. The conspirators then used stolen identities to open additional accounts – referred to in the Information as “Profit Accounts” – at other brokerage houses. They then caused the victims’ accounts to make unprofitable and illogical securities trades with the Profit Accounts, leading to losses in the victims’ accounts and gains in the Profit Accounts. One version of the fraud involved causing the victims’ accounts to sell options contracts to the Profit Accounts, then to purchase the same contracts back minutes later for many times the price.

The members of the conspiracy recruited foreign nationals visiting, studying, and living in the United States to open bank accounts into which illegal proceeds could be deposited. The conspirators then caused the proceeds of the sham trades to be transferred from the Profit Accounts into those accounts, where the stolen money could be withdrawn.

In addition to the prison term, Murmylyuk is ordered to serve three years of supervised release, and pay restitution of $505,357.79.

Yehuda Sadok (Source: LinkedIn)

It seems a Manhattan widow should have taken a cue from the theme song of the 1960s television show, Secret Agent: “Beware of pretty faces that you find. / A pretty face can hide an evil mind.”

Except his face ain’t all that pretty. But, according to the now deceased widow’s daughter, it hid a mind evil enough to nearly dupe the vulnerable woman and her family out of $20 million, and sparked a change in her will that caused her daughters to lose their inheritance.

Brighton Beach resident Yehuda Sadok, 48, is accused in a lawsuit filed by the widow’s daughters of posing as an Israeli spy who pals around with Vladimir Putin and Robert De Niro. The purpose, they say, was to get the widow, Emilie Martin, to hand over $20 million in jewelry for a deal with a Saudi sheikh.

From the Daily News:

Using the name Oody Geffen, Sadok “convinced my mother that he is a former intelligence officer from Mossad (the Israeli Secret Service), keeps a cyanide capsule in his mouth, has a close personal connection to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the Israeli Prime Minister, and is a friend of film actor Robert De Niro,” DiFabrizio said in court papers.

… Oody — who also claimed to be a movie producer — convinced Martin in the fall of 2009 to let him sell her jewelry in Dubai, telling her she should hand over $20 million in inventory from her business so he could have a “private sale” for Sheikh Mohammed, his family and friends, according to court papers.

He convinced Martin they’d use the profits to buy “a fancy condominium in Abu Dhabi where they would live happily ever after,” court filings say.

According to DNAinfo, that deal came on the heels of another one, in which Sadok had successfully pursuaded Martin to sell $1.4 million in jewelry to a company serving as an agent of the Sheikh of Dubai. The daughters say Sadok took home a $420,000 commission on the deal, even though the business lost $170,000.

Ultimately, the daughters, who own a portion of the business, successfully stopped the $20 million Saudi jewelry deal in court in 2009. The elder Martin died in 2011, but as a result of the bad blood caused by the deal, the daughters say, they’ve been cut out of the will and her estate has been split up between the mother’s estranged siblings.

The current lawsuit seeks to get the existing will tossed out of court, saying that it was written up under “an insane delusion.”

Sadok said the daughters have got the story all wrong, and that his relationship with Martin was nothing more than a close friendship.

Sadok, a married father of six, told DNAinfo New York on Friday that he was a close friend to Emilie but never claimed to be a spy or have famous friends.

“Robert De Niro, Mossad, who says something like that?” Sadok asked. “I never met Robert De Niro in my life.”

When asked how he met Emilie, Sadok said that a former FBI agent had introduced him to her. Sadok said he was helping the FBI agent retrieve jewels for Emilie.

Sadok also said that he had a platonic friendship with Emilie and that his whole family, including his mother, got to know her.

“I heard all these stories. I’ll be honest with you. Does it make any sense? I think it’s very silly to say something like that,” Sadok said when asked if he tried to romance Emilie.

Police are looking for help tracking down a suspect in a rash of Brighton Beach burglaries in which the suspect gains the confidence of his victims before making off with cash and jewelry.

CBS reports:

Police said the suspect followed the residents into their apartment buildings, telling them he is their upstairs neighbor and that water from his apartment was leaking into theirs, police said.

The suspect then tells the victims that he wants to inspect the damage and will pay for it, police said.

He asks the victims for change for a $100 bill so he can give them $50 for the damage, then goes through their apartments taking jewelry and money, police said.

The victims include an 89-year-old woman robbed on December 24 and an 88-year-old woman this past Sunday. The suspect took about $2,400 in cash and several items of jewelry from both.

Police say the suspect is a white male last seen wearing sunglasses, a ski hat and a waist-length jacket. He may speak Russian.

Below is surveillance video released by the NYPD:

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto Crime Stoppers’ website or by texting their tips to CRIMES (274637), then entering TIP577.

In the first meeting of the 61st Precinct Community Council of 2014, the 61st Precinct’s executive officer, Captain Faison, reflected on the past year, focusing on the increase in domestic violence.

Filling in for precinct’s commanding officer, Captain John M. Chell, Faison noted that crime was down overall, but that instances of domestic violence were still on the rise.

“We ended the year below 2012 [figures] in all categories with the exception of felony assaults, mainly due to domestic violence,” Faison said.

Currently in charge of the traffic program, Faison talked up year-end reductions in road accidents. “We are down in collisions,” he said.

For the month, all crime was down as well, except robberies, according to Faison.

“We had a couple of bank robberies,” Faison said, citing Chase as one of the banks that was targeted.

“One individual went to two banks; one bank he hit twice,” he said.

The perpetrator was identified and arrested, Faison added.

Other robberies, he said, included attacks on Chinese food delivery men throughout the area.

– Steven Volynets

One of the photos sent to Brodsky’s Dropbox account from the phone.

A Brighton Beach woman claims that her cell phone was stolen and then used to take nude photos and a sex video, the files of which were automatically sent to her using an online service.

The Daily News reports:

“It seemed like they were getting off after taking the phone,” said the shocked Victoria Brodsky, 39, of the treasure trove of images, which include the man and woman showing it all for the camera. “I would love it if they were caught.”

The married mother of two says she lost her Samsung Galaxy S3 and wallet to pickpockets during an August street fair and later discovered the raunchy pics uploaded to her Dropbox account linked to her pilfered phone.

Brodsky, who lives in Brighton Beach, had planned to forget about the month-old phone, but the sight of the brazen couple’s shameless frolicking makes her want justice.

“It’s one thing to steal, but they’re celebrating,” said Brodsky of the 26 pictures and one pornographic video that showed up in her account between August and September.

Brodsky said she was at the Brighton Beach Jubilee on August 25 when her wallet and cell phone went missing from her purse.

She called the cops to report the theft. Police, though, said she only reported the cell phone as lost, a point Brodksy disputes, saying that the cops pushed her to classify it as lost since she didn’t see anyone take it.

Her phone was synced to her Dropbox account, an online file service to which photos and video from cell phones automatically upload. The photos and video began hitting her Dropbox account a week after the alleged theft.

When she saw them, she wasn’t impressed.

“Sex looks very boring in their house,” she told the News.