We're used to hearing about thieves targeting iPhones or bikes...but tutus and teddy bears? Police are searching for a tutu thief (or thieves) who stole nearly $17,000 worth of ballet costumes from an upper West Side dance company. In a separate incident, they're also looking for a thieving duo who pilfered a bunch of teddy bear centerpieces from the bris for the 8-day-old twin grandchildren of Brooklyn Councilman Michael Nelson.
The tutu snatching happened at the Manhattan Youth Ballet on W. 60th Street in April, but was not reported until the start of this month "for insurance purposes." The handmade costumes were on loan from the Parsons Dance Company; the stolen goods, including four women's bronze and red dresses, four pairs of velvet dance trunks, four men's beige dance trunks and one man's gold and brown vest, were all used for a dance competition in March.
The teddy bear theft occurred yesterday on Avenue T, while over 100 guests dined after the bris at a local synagogue. "It really hurt a beautiful affair. Everything was going so nicely," said the Sheepshead Bay Councilman Nelson. Strangely, the thieves, who were dressed in traditional Jewish garb, left behind other gifts, such as envelopes stuffed with cash, in favor of the teddy bears. "It's chutzpah to come inside during a celebration and steal the centerpieces while people are enjoying themselves," one of the guests told the News. Perhaps this was some sort of symbolic anti-circumcision gesture by intactivists?
