Two masked men went on a rampage, stealing nearly $2 million worth of Hermès Birkin bags at the Setai Hotel in Miami Beach.
A video of a March 19 heist has resurfaced on the web of a couple of bold thieves allegedly storming into a Maison Wrist Aficionado store with enormous trash bins around 2:45 a.m. The newly-released surveillance video shows a frenzied 45-year-old Eduardo Travieso Garcia and an accomplice stashing away about $1.8 million in luxury handbag items.
Thanks to the video footage and Setai’s security manager, police discovered that the pair of bandits smuggled over 60 Hermès Birkin handbags, dumped them in the trash cans and fled the scene in two separate vehicles. The stolen purses amounted to about $25,000 to $35,000.
Another video shows both men accompanied by a work van before forcing their way through the locked front door. According to the police report, detectives confirmed that the van matched the description of a stolen vehicle while the other alleged escape vehicle, an orange Hyundai Santa Fe, matched a suspect vehicle in a jewelry store burglary nearly five hours away.
Garcia, who owned the Santa Fe, is facing charges of grand theft, masked burglary, and unlawful use of a communications device after confessing to the masked burglary heist, NBC 6 Miami reported. He was arrested in March after police officers tracked down the vehicle to Garcia’s residence near Miami-Dade, where he reportedly came clean about his sticky fingers.
A luxury expert said, depending on its condition, a Hermès Birkin handbag could double in value in as little as five years.
James Firestein, founder of the luxury resale and authentication platform OpenLuxury, said that the “resale value of the Birkin and Kely bags, particularly over the past 10 years, has outpaced gold.”
In the aftermath of the wild incident, some social media users predict the downfall of retail stores and the rise of online shopping.
