Thomas “Tommy” Dono, a little-known, one-armed Gambino soldier who cut his mob teeth as a bank burglar and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 1990s, still has the Midas touch, prosecutors say.
The gangster has been credited with pulling off a spectacular $1.7 million burglary of the Chanel boutique in Manhattan, the company’s largest and most significant in the country, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
The blockbuster ripoff took place nearly two years ago. That’s when Dono and a crew of 10 stole hundreds of items worth $1,776,7000 from Chanel’s flagship store at 15 East 57th Street during a well-planned, three-hour caper that began Saturday, July 13, 2024 at 10:14 p.m., according to the court records.
Dono, 52, is alleged to have supervised the scheme from a white minivan parked at the store until 1:25 a.m. Sunday, July 14. That’s when he drove away from the scene of the crime followed by a white Sprinter van filled with 10 large laundry and trash bags containing 300 Chanel items lifted out of a stockroom ceiling hatch, the prosecutors say.
According to surveillance video obtained by the NYPD, the bags of loot were carried down a rear fire escape exit by five crew members into an alleyway behind the store.
Then they took them into an East 58th Street building that was under construction at the time, lugged them onto the street and into the van.
Several of the burglars were dressed “as construction workers,” the records say, and they gained access to the Chanel store by breaking through a stockroom ceiling hatch.
None of the stolen merchandise has been recovered, the records state.
Only Dono, who pleaded not guilty to grand larceny on May 19, has been arrested in the case. He was released on $300,000 bond by Judge Felicia Mennin, half of what the DA’s office sought. The investigation is still continuing, and more arrests are expected.
Based on information in the court records and sources in the NYPD and DA’s offices, Dono was quickly tabbed as a key player in the caper — because his left arm was amputated at the shoulder several years ago. Sources say the arm was injured in a car accident.
“Given his unique physical characteristics,” the records state, he was “identified relatively early.”
Investigators also found surveillance videos of Dono and the two white vehicles involved in the burglary parked outside a three-family home on Bay 10th Street in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn on the same days they were allegedly used in the Chanel heist.
Sources say Dono, a nephew of Thomas “Huck” Carbonaro, the late Gambino soldier who was convicted of racketeering and the attempted murder of a turncoat underboss, Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano, was inducted into the crime family five years ago following his release from prison for taking part in the 1998 murder of FBI informer Frank Hydell. Hydell was shot and killed outside a Staten Island strip club.
In 2008, Dono’s racketeering indictment alleged that in 2001 he was proposed for membership in the crime family, “as a reward for crimes [he] committed on behalf of the family, including the murder of Hydell.”
Sources say Dono, who resolved his Hydell case by taking a plea deal calling for a 15-year prison term, was released in 2021, and until last month had avoided any entanglements with the law. The wiseguy, the sources say, is currently a mobster in good standing under the octogenarian capo who took over Gravano’s Brooklyn crew when he flipped, Louis “Big Lou” Vallario.
From Jerry Capeci’s online column, ganglandnews.com.
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