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California has a new retail task force but they didn’t do a whole lot to prevent Macy’s from getting mob looted. After Nordstrom got hit, the LA Police Department teamed up with LA County Sheriff’s Department, the U.S. Marshals Apprehension Task Force and the FBI Apprehension Task Force. They were still getting coordinated when “masked thieves in hooded sweatshirts” started filling their loot bags in Sherman Oaks.
Mob hits Macy’s
Another flash mob terrorized a Los Angeles Macy’s store in what’s being described as the latest in a “string of smash-and-grab robberies caught on film.” The video from the outlet in Sherman Oaks, California is “startling,” New York Post relates.
It clearly shows “a group of masked thieves in hooded sweatshirts filling their bags with merchandise shortly after 12:30 p.m. Thursday,” August 24.
Helpless shoppers are “seen standing by in shock as the thieves — described as being in their early 20s — cleared out shelves before running away together, dropping some of the stolen merch on the ground.”
Another day, another mob theft in California. This time criminals looted a Macy’s store in Arcadia.
Welcome to @GavinNewsom’s California. pic.twitter.com/9puqb529Mx
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 23, 2023
It will soon be sold at prices far below Macy’s but all profit for the thieves. This raiding mob was caught on camera fleeing the Westfield Fashion Square shopping center “in two cars — a silver or gold Honda and a black Ford Fusion.” Both were probably stolen.
The exact same day that the “brazen daylight heist” struck Macy’s, “Southern California law enforcement agencies united to form a retail crime task force to curb such incidents.” Too bad they weren’t in Sherman Oaks when the mob hit.
They did watch the videos, though. They count nine masked robbers in the pack. For now, “22 full-time investigators solely devoted to taking down organized retail crime in the area” are clueless.
An unacceptable situation
“What we’ve seen over just the past week in the City of Los Angeles and in surrounding regions is unacceptable,” Mayor Karen Bass admits, “which is why today we are here announcing action.” While she was announcing action, the looters were taking action, along with bags of booty from Macy’s.
They need the specialists because this “brazen day-time robbery is only the latest in a series of flash mob thefts plaguing California retailers.” Everyone thinks these are “victimless crimes” but they aren’t. Even if nobody gets pepper sprayed. Nordstrom just closed their flagship store in San Francisco. The zombie infestation has them leaving the state.
The mob raid on Nordstrom in Canoga Park, which happened on August 12, was even bigger. In that one, “more than 30 masked robbers made off with over $300,000 worth of goods.” That’s the incident where one of the suspects used “bear spray against a security guard who responded to the theft.”
SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. (KABC) — A flash mob struck a Macy's department store in Sherman Oaks on Thursday afternoon.
New descriptor dropped for black thugs… "Flash Mob".
"Flash Mob" …. Be on the lookout for "flash Mobs" when in Macys.https://t.co/WFVHkNgz8b pic.twitter.com/zErnOIcXFS
— Dane (@UltraDane) August 25, 2023
Retailers know that there’s nothing they can do to prevent all their profit from walking straight out the door in liberal places like California where retail theft isn’t prosecuted.
Amazingly, the new task force “has since arrested 11 individuals allegedly connected to the Nordstrom robbery, and four other incidents.” Prosecuting them and putting them behind bars are someone else’s problem.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the long run. Meanwhile, one by one, the retailers are closing their doors. That’s their way of telling the mob of thieves to go steal what they want someplace else.
