A tourist visiting the Big Apple with her husband was robbed of her engagement ring and wedding band in a cold-hearted theft in Hell’s Kitchen early Tuesday.
Two men came up to help her, but in the process, one snatched her engagement ring off her finger, cops said.
The couple, from Meraux, Louisiana, was waiting for a cab on West 46th Street around 12:30 a.m. when the 33-year-old woman stumbled and fell, according to police.
When her 44-year-old husband confronted the thief, the perp slugged him in the neck and pulled up his shirt to flash what appeared to be a gun in his waistband, police said.
The thug then grabbed the woman’s wedding band as well, fleeing with the ring in his mouth, according to police sources.
The couple is staying at a hotel in Times Square, police said.
Police are looking for the two men.
Reached Wednesday, the husband declined to comment.
“I feel bad for them,” Gustavo Perez, a waiter at a restaurant near the scene of the ring heist, told The Post Wednesday. “I’m sure their vacation got ruined. You don’t want to get robbed on your vacation.”
“And those things have a lot of sentimental value,” Perez added.
Local resident Chad Ryan said the neighborhood isn’t as safe as it was.
“There is an uptick of crime in this area,” he said. “I’d take my dog out for a midnight walk but, no thank you. I don’t do it anymore. I don’t feel safe.”
“I walk my dog around 10, 10:30 [p.m.],” Ryan added. “It feels more dangerous now than it has been in a while.” Â
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts