A flash mob of seventeen teenagers was caught on camera, ransacking a Nike store in Los Angeles, making off with $12,000 (Rs 9.9 lakh) worth of clothing. The incident happened on November 19 at a Nike store in a Los Angeles neighborhood known as Watts. According to The Los Angeles Police Department, the group of thieves consisted of four girls and thirteen boys, all between the ages of 15 and 20, CBS News reported.
Pictures and videos shared by the Los Angeles Police Department's Commercial Crimes Division, show the teenagers grabbing boxes of sneakers, ripping clothes off the racks, and stuffing them into large blue trash bags. Some thieves grabbed so much that they dropped some of what they were already carrying. All of them were seen wearing medical masks or some material covering their faces. Meanwhile, shoppers looked on hopelessly, while filming the brazen robbery on their mobile phones, but no one intervened.
Investigators say the group arrived at the store and then fled the scene in five cars. The vehicles used in the robbery were described as a tan Infiniti four-door, a gray KIA SUV, a white Honda, a KIA four-door, and a black Audi. Police have now released footage of the brazen robbery in hopes of identifying the suspects.
Watch the video here:
LAPD officers said that this was not the first time the shop had been robbed. They suspect the same group is responsible for the robberies.
''Look. Take a look. We're finally doing something. They need to just leave us alone. They need to go about their business. Don't ever come back here. This community is already rough. They're just making us look bad,'' one woman said.
Petty theft and organized shoplifting are on the rise in several US states while consumers grapple with costs of living. Los Angeles County currently has the highest commercial robbery rate in the state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
