The thieves who stole $102 million in jewels from the Louvre on Sunday appear to have done more or less what others have done on Long Island for the last century, albeit on a smaller scale: smash, grab, leave. On Long Island, sometimes, they didn’t even have to smash.

In June, Newsday reported the theft of a replica World War II pistol from The Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage; then, several days later, the arrest of a Mastic man apparently attempting to return the replica after trying, and failing, to convert it into a functioning weapon.

The incident was troubling enough to museum officials that they "put some of our exhibits behind Plexiglas, which is something we didn’t particularly want to do, because we wanted our visitors to be able to get close and personal" with the ar

See Full Page