{"id":273953,"date":"2026-06-22T14:34:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/273953\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T14:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:34:46","slug":"one-armed-gambino-mobster-behind-1-7-million-chanel-heist-da","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/273953\/","title":{"rendered":"One-armed Gambino mobster behind $1.7 million Chanel heist: DA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas \u201cTommy\u201d Dono<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

The gangster has been credited with pulling off a spectacular $1.7 million\u00a0burglary\u00a0of the Chanel boutique in Manhattan, the company\u2019s largest and most significant in the country, according to the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The blockbuster ripoff took place nearly two years ago. That\u2019s when Dono and a crew of 10 stole hundreds\u00a0of items worth $1,776,7000 from Chanel\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Gambino crime family mobster Thomas Dono has been charged with pulling off a heist at flagship Chanel boutique in Manhattan in 2024. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

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\u2019s when he drove away from the\u00a0scene 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Several of the burglars were dressed \u201cas construction workers,\u201d the records say, and they gained access to the Chanel store by breaking through a stockroom ceiling hatch.<\/p>\n

None of the stolen merchandise has been recovered, the records state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dono and a crew of ten allegedly stole $1.7 million worth of Chanel merchandise from the store on East 57th Street. Helayne Seidman for NY Post<\/p>\n

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\u2019s office sought. The investigation is still continuing, and more arrests are expected.<\/p>\n

Based on information in the court records and sources in the NYPD and DA\u2019s offices, Dono was quickly tabbed as a key player in the caper \u2014 because his left arm was amputated at the shoulder several years ago. Sources say the arm was injured in a car accident. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven his unique physical characteristics,\u201d the records state, he was \u201cidentified relatively early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dono\u2019s mugshot from a prior arrest.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Sources say Dono, a nephew of Thomas \u201cHuck\u201d Carbonaro<\/a>, the late Gambino soldier who was convicted of racketeering and the attempted murder of a turncoat underboss, Salvatore \u201cSammy Bull\u201d Gravano,<\/a> 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<\/a>. Hydell was shot and killed outside a Staten Island strip club.<\/p>\n

NYPD at the scene of where FBI informant Frank Hydell was murdered at Scarlet\u2019s strip club in Staten Island in 1998. Advance\/SILIve.com\/Michael McWeeney<\/p>\n

In 2008, Dono\u2019s racketeering indictment alleged that in 2001 he was proposed for membership in the crime family, \u201cas a reward for crimes [he] committed on behalf of the family, including the murder of Hydell.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Brooklyn crew when he flipped, Louis \u201cBig Lou\u201d Vallario.<\/p>\n

From Jerry Capeci\u2019s online column, ganglandnews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas \u201cTommy\u201d Dono, a little-known, one-armed Gambino soldier who cut his mob teeth as a bank burglar and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[8861,6238,23956,6239,75,84,83,57,9,24,63,58],"class_list":["post-273953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-chanel","tag-gambinos","tag-heists","tag-mafia","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}