The manhunt is on for the suspected criminal seen above. Around 4:30pm on September 29th, this man was lingering nearby a mostly unattended truck and waited for his chance to pounce. When he believed the coast was clear he swooped in and stole a bucket from the back of the truck.
It’s unclear whether or not the man knew what he was stealing at the time but the bucket was full of gold flake, a shit ton of valuable gold flake. To be exact, the bucket was holding $1.6 MILLION worth of gold flake, an ingredient used in high-end sushi, caviar, chocolate desserts, etc.
According to the Gothamist, one NYPD detective believes this was a crime of opportunity. Stating “I think he just saw an opportunity, took the pail and walked off.”
This is certainly a plausible explanation for what transpired but it also seems fishy as hell that 1) the man lingered so long just to steal a fucking bucket and 2) someone was stupid enough to leave a bucket containing $1.6 million of gold flake just sitting unattended on the back of a truck. I’m not a detective but if it was my first day on the job I’d definitely be exploring the idea of collusion, and an employee leaving that bucket unattended on purpose. Because I can’t fathom someone being stupid enough to leave something that valuable sitting around for no reason at all (in this case I suspect the reason was someone stole it and there was an insurance claim made, a need to file losses, or something else of this nature).
The NYPD is looking for leads in any way they can get them:
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
So if you recognize the man in that video and want to turn him in you can do so by following any of that information above!
(h/t Gothamist)