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December 11th, 2024

Insight

Smash and Grab

Greg Crosby

By Greg Crosby

Published November 29, 2021

Smash and Grab
The call came in at 10:40 p.m. last Monday evening. A mob of at least 20 thieves broke into a Nordstrom department store at The Grove, a popular Los Angeles shopping center. It was what they call a smash-and-grab robbery.

The mob smashed a store window using a sledgehammer and merchandise was found littered outside. The thieves fled the scene in an SUV, triggering a police car chase, according to Los Angeles Police Department Officer Mike Lopez.

The chase ended at 98th Street and Hoover Street in South Los Angeles. The driver of the car stopped in a residential area and took off running. Three of the thieves were taken into custody, police said Tuesday morning.Ê No one knows for sure just how many thieves were involved and how much merchandise was stolen. The media tells us not to make such a big deal out of it. "It's only property, after all," they say.

Police believe that this incident could be linked to another smash and grab which happened one hour earlier at a CVS drug store nearby where the crooks got away with $8,500 in cash. ("It's only money.)

A day earlier, on Sunday, storefront windows near the Rodeo Drive shopping area in Beverly Hills were shattered Sunday in two apparent smash-and-grab burglary attempts. Officers responded to the Louis Vuitton and Saks Fifth Avenue stores shortly after midnight. The attempted break-ins were reported in the 200 block of North Rodeo Drive and the 9600 block of Wilshire Boulevard. "Comon, man, it's only property, right?"

According to Beverly Hills Police Department Sgt. Anthony Adams, the methods used in Beverly Hills appeared to mimic those used on the previous night, Saturday, in the San Francisco Bay area attacks, which relied on convoys of vehicles. "Multiple suspects traveling in several vehicles descended on the locations and used a sledgehammer to try to break through front windows."

The San Francisco area robbery was in the community of Walnut Creek where about 80 thieves descended on another Nordstrom store in the city's Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek police said. An employee was pepper sprayed, and two others were punched and kicked. The robbers were in and out of the store within a minute, police said. Thousands of dollars of expensive goods were stolen.ÊWalnut Creek policeÊsaid three people were arrested in connection with Saturday night's incident. Three arrested, 77 got away.

San Francisco's Union Square was one of the first shopping areas hit last Friday night whenÊa Louis Vuitton store was among several shops that were looted. A mob of at least 14 were caught on surveillance footage storming into the Louis Vuitton store. Over the weekend, businesses boarded up their windows as police stepped up patrols in response to the violent robbery attacks.

San Jose police said thieves made off with anÊestimated $40,000 worth of merchandiseÊstolen from a Lululemon store Sunday night. Meanwhile, at the same time, a bigger attempted robbery took place at the Westfield Valley Fair Mall.

All in all, dozens of storefronts and businesses in California were ransacked last weekend in well organized criminal robberies involving flash mobs who hook up on the internet and drive multiple vehicles caravan style to the stores they plan to rob.

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This outlaw activity is not just happening in crazy California, it's going on all over. Last month Chicago luxury stores were hit in broad daylight. A Bottega Veneta shop near the Magnificent Mile was ransacked around 2:54 p.m. and resulted in thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise. The month before seven or eight thugs robbed a Bloomingdales store of thousands of dollars' worth of expensive purses. "Only property. No big deal"

We won't see the end of this as long as Democrat politicians refuse to condemn lawlessness and engage in catch and release without bail for dangerous crooks. Just keep releasing criminals back into society and guess what? We'll have more criminal activity. And the media morons will continue to spin it as social justice. "You have a problem with people of color taking stuff out of the stores? You must be a white supremacist!"

Yes, these words are actually being said and broadcast by major news outlets.

People in positions of power had better start using their power to keep our streets safe once again. If the government can't or won't protect law abiding citizens from criminals this country will soon see many more Kyle Rittenhouses. If the authorities can't protect us, we will have no other choice but to protect ourselves.

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