Blue Stove Antiques Robber Sentenced

A little more than a year after the armed robbery at Fair Haven's Blue Stove Antiques, a Staten Island, NY man was sentenced in federal court on Tuesday to 114 months in prison for his role in the robbery, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Robert A. Fiolka, 69, had pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson to the June 2, 2012 armed robbery after having been caught in September of 2012.

It had been found that Fiolka had a prior criminal record and the FBI, working with the Fair Haven police, had issued a warrant for his arrest in the Blue Stove incident, according to previous reports.

Fiolka, according to court documents and statements and Fair Haven Police Department records, had entered the store, masked, at 9:21 a.m. the morning of the crime, confronted the owner brandishing a handgun, ordered him to open the safe and lay face-down on the floor.

Fiolka then emptied the safe of roughly $200,000 worth of watches and other jewelry. He dumped the merchandise into a gym bag and fled the scene, carrying what appeared to be a hand-held scanner, in a white compact car, according to police records.

In addition to the prison term, Fiolka was also sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution, according the U.S. Attorney.