Happy Return for Munsey Park Furriers

By Eileen Brennan

It was a week of roller coaster emotions for the proprietors of Superior Furs in the Munsey Park Center, but by the time Thanksgiving Day arrived they had reason to be thankful.

Superior Furs owners Tom and Henriette Djoganopoulos were in their store on Northern Boulevard when two customers, a young woman and a man, entered the outer vestibule of the store and were buzzed in. They said they were interested in purchasing a leather coat. After they had been in the store for about 10 minutes, the buzzer rang again. Two men were requesting entry, one of whom had been in the store earlier looking at coats. They had been in the store only a few minutes when one of the men produced a handgun and brought Henriette and Tom into the rear room where their tailor was working on a garment. The three were told to lie down on the floor and when they did so their hands were tied behind their backs with plastic twine. Henriette said she was terrified, not knowing whether she was about to be choked or shot.

In fact she was neither. Once the three were tied up, the thieves went back into the front room and spent approximately 50 minutes gathering up fur and leather coats. Henriette said they did not appear to know the value of what they were taking as they took coats that were just skins waiting to be sewn, old garments left for storage as well as new ones of greater value.

After their attackers had left Henriette was able to free her hands, pull the alarm and call the police.

The following day police arrested five people, four men and a woman, for the robbery. All five are residents of Jackson Heights. The woman is 18 years old and the men range in age from 19 to 33. The young woman and two of the men were also charged with Robbery First Degree as a result of a robbery of Raquel Lingerie on Nov. 10. More than $700,000 in stolen furs were recovered.

Henriette Djoganopoulos said that the police had sketches of the perpetrators of the earlier robbery and, given the Superior Furs' proprietors' description of the group that had committed their robbery, were able to identify them.

Superior Furs has been located in the Munsey Center for 14 years. This is the first time they have experienced a robbery.