Surveillance video shows hoodie-wearing thieves brazenly steal bulletproof vests meant for Ukraine, loading cardboard boxes into vans and driving off.
Two vans — one white and one black — pull up to the East Village building that houses the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, according to the video, shot Tuesday and obtained by The Post.
Men with masks and hoodies exit a white van around 10 p.m. and walk back and forth with the boxes from the building at 203 Second Ave. to the vehicle, the video showed. One box was so large it needed two people to carry it out.
Passersby were seen walking down the block without giving the thieves a second glance.
Another van pulled up about an hour later to ferry away more boxes.
The vests had been stored in a building hallway. The nonprofit organizations are collecting donations to aid the war effort in Ukraine.
NYPD officers investigate the scene of the robbery outside the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America in the East Village. Matthew McDermott
Surveillance footage shows robbers hauling in boxes of donated bulletproof vests onto vans outside the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America in the East Village.
The suspects nabbed bulletproof vests intended to be sent to Ukraine amid its battle against Russia’s invasion.
The thieves snatched approximately 400 bulletproof vests, according to the NYPD.
The group used two vans to carry loads of bulletproof vests.
The vests had been stored in a hallway in the East Village building. Matthew McDermottThe theft was discovered Wednesday morning and about 400 vests were taken, according to the NYPD.
The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office had donated used vests to help the Ukrainian groups but it wasn’t clear whether those were the vests taken.
