High-end watch thief confesses to NYC armed robbery spree: authorities

A jewelry thief behind nearly a dozen armed robberies across the city has pleaded guilty to sticking up stores and snatching victims’ Rolexes and other luxury watches worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, authorities said Wednesday.

Victor Rivera, 30, admitted he participated in a year-long spree of armed robberies and attempted armed robberies, including one in which a victim was shot, prosecutors said.

Officials said Rivera was involved in a total of 11 robberies in Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey.

The most expensive watch stolen was a Richard Mille worth more than $250,000, which Rivera and another man swiped from a jeweler in Long Island City, an indictment charged.

“As he has now admitted, Victor Rivera committed a year-long spree of armed robberies and attempted robberies of jewelers and other owners of luxury watches, threatening his victims with guns and, during the course of one robbery, shooting a victim,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Now Rivera awaits sentencing for this terrifying conduct.”

Rivera, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, which carries a maximum prison term of 20 years, officials said.

According to the indictment, between October 2019 and November 2020, Rivera and several associates agreed to target victims with pricey luxury watches worth up to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Rivera used guns in several of the heists, including one in which he opened fire on a victim who survived the attack.

Among the high-end goods stolen were a Richard Mille watch with a price tag of more than $148,000, a Patek Philippe watch worth over $160,000, a Rolex worth north of $150,000 and a diamond necklace worth a dazzling $77,000-plus.

When Rivera and a partner stole the diamond necklace from a jeweler in Brooklyn, the robbers flashed a gun, officials said. The robbery in which the victim was shot also took place in Brooklyn in June 2020.

Rivera’s crime spree even crossed state lines. On July 6, 2020, he and a co-conspirator robbed a jeweler in Hoboken, N.J., grabbing a Richard Mille watch worth $81,000-plus. They then took the pricey piece back to New York.

Just weeks later, Rivera and a partner flashed a gun and stole the $250,000 Richard Mille from a victim near Englewood Cliffs, N.J.