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Release time: 2021-11-23 20:17:23 Update time: 2021-11-23 20:18:34
November 23, 2021, 8:17 p.m. EDT Released on November 23, 2021, 8:18 p.m. EDT
Authors: EUGENE GARCIA and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - A group of thieves smashed the windows of a department store in a luxury shopping mall in Los Angeles. A few days after being targeted by high-end stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, a police chase was triggered.
The latest incident in the nationwide smashing crime trend targeted a Nordstrom store in the Grove Retail and Entertainment Center. Earlier, the country’s largest consumer electronics chain stated that the increase in organized theft was causing losses to its profits.
When security and shoppers entered and exited the store on Tuesday morning, workers covered a large Nordstrom window with black plywood. The Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michelle Moore said that from Tuesday night until Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend, the agency will increase visible patrols of high-end stores in the city.
Moore said crimes like this "have far greater impact on security than the dollar loss of goods."
Moore said the burglars launched an attack at around 10:40 on Monday night, breaking the glass of the window with a sledgehammer and an electric bicycle. Approximately 20 people participated in the smashing and theft, stole about $5,000 worth of goods, and caused about $15,000 in damage to the store when they fled.
The police hunted down an SUV involved in the case. The hunt was over and three people, including a teenager, were arrested. Officials found Nordstrom merchandise in the SUV, as well as items that appeared to have been stolen during the CVS burglary earlier in the day.
The Grove incident occurred after similar shameless thefts in the San Francisco Bay Area and Beverly Hills over the weekend. A group of people, some of them armed with crowbars and hammers, ransacked high-end stores and stole jewelry, Sunglasses, suitcases, clothes and other goods are in the waiting car.
It is believed that these thefts are part of a complex criminal network that mainly recruits young people to steal goods in stores across the country and then sell them on the online market. Experts and law enforcement officials said that with the advent of the holiday shopping season, there are more and more thefts.
The National Retail Federation said that a recent survey found that organized thefts in stores have increased and the perpetrators have become more aggressive.
Electronic store chain Best Buy on Tuesday listed organized theft as one of the reasons for the decline in gross margins in the third quarter.
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry told analysts on Tuesday’s conference call: “This is a real problem that will hurt and fear real people.”
In another phone call, Barry told reporters that the company found an increase in organized thefts across the country, especially in San Francisco. She said the company is hiring security personnel and working with suppliers to showcase products in creative ways.
However, David Levenberg, an expert in store and retail security, said that loss prevention agents and security personnel are usually trained not to come into contact with thieves. They are not trained or equipped to hunt down or subdue suspects, and the possibility of violence is too great; on the contrary, they should "observe and report."
"The value of the product is not worthy of injury or death," he said.
Workplace safety expert Hector Alvarez (Hector Alvarez) said retailers need to consider how to manage customers in the event of stealing theft. He said stores are obliged to protect shoppers in these incidents, just as they did in the event of a fire.
He said that clients should not intervene or fight thieves, but should focus on being a good witness for law enforcement.
Although these brazen crimes are still relatively rare, "shopping now becomes dangerous under certain circumstances," said Alvarez, president of California-based Alvarez Associates LLC.
According to reports, no shoppers were injured in the recent incident.
Ben Dugan, chairman of the Law Enforcement and Retail Alliance, said that flash mobs are usually organized by locals who recruit staff and send them to steal specific goods requested by criminal organizations across the United States.
Those who stole something would get paid between 500 and 1,000 dollars, and they would take as much as they could and bring it back to the organizer, who then transported it to other parts of the country.
"The crew boss organizes them. They will give him a crowbar, and in some cases even rent them a car, or provide them with an escape route or a list for them to actually go out and steal things. It looks chaotic, but it's actually Going well organized," Dugan said.
"We are not talking about people who need money or food. These people go out to do this for high profits, but also for excitement," he said.
However, in some cases, the thief may be an imitator, rather than a person cooperating with an organized network, Levenberg said. He said the thief might be thinking: "'Did you see what happened in San Francisco? Let's go to the Grove and do it.'"
Although smashing and robbery are occurring nationwide, Levenberg said cities with progressive prosecutors, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, have been hit particularly hard, because the punishment for perpetrators is not as severe as in other cities. .
"The consequences are minimal and profitable," said Levenberg, founder of Florida Central Security Services.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday that his office met with retailers over the weekend and they asked for more police patrols.
He said that he will immediately begin to strengthen law enforcement "in shopping malls and surrounding areas that are heavily trafficked and are about to enter the Black Friday holiday season."
Dugan said that retailers lose approximately $65 billion each year due to organized theft, most of which are stolen by professional thieves.
Police said that last week, 14 suspects entered a Louis Vuitton store in Oakbrook, a suburb of Chicago, removed large plastic bags from their coats and filled them with clothes and other items, stole more than $120,000 in merchandise .
Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Anne D'Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. all rights reserved. Do not publish, broadcast, rewrite or redistribute this material.
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