Los Angeles leaders are sounding the alarm after hordes of shoplifters made off with an estimated $400,000 during two high-profile heists last week that overwhelmed store security guards and dispersed before police could catch them.
Authorities said a mob of 30 to 50 suspects descended on the Nordstrom store at the Westfield Topanga shopping mall Saturday, swiping clothes, bags and other goods before sprinting to getaway vehicles without license plates.
Two security guards who confronted the shoplifters were doused with bear spray, police said.
Police estimate the loss is $60,000 to $100,000. No arrests have been reported.
Days earlier, an Yves Saint Laurent store in Glendale, north of Los Angeles, was looted by robbers who stole $300,000 worth of merchandise.
An employee from a nearby store told local Fox affiliate KTTV that 30 thieves raided the business in less than a minute before they ran to idling getaway vehicles.
No arrests have been reported in that incident.
The rampage at Nordstrom‘s on Saturday, part of which was captured on camera and posted to social media by bystanders, drew condemnation from Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat and former congresswoman who won the job last year after promising to address homelessness and crime in the city.
“What happened today at the Nordstrom in the Topanga Mall is absolutely unacceptable. Those who committed these acts and acts like it in neighboring areas must be held accountable,” she said in a statement. “The Los Angeles Police Department will continue to work to not only find those responsible for this incident but to prevent these attacks on retailers from happening in the future.”
But tracking down suspects involved in mass thefts can be difficult.
California law enforcement sources previously told The Wall Street Journal that in some cases the suspects don’t know each before hitting a store. Crooks will typically broadcast the date and time of a planned heist on a social media app such as Snapchat without revealing who is participating in — or organizing — the robbery.
“This isn’t ‘The Godfather’ by any stretch,” Steve Wagstaffe, the San Mateo County, California, district attorney, told The Journal in 2021. “It’s the modern version of ‘Hey, there’s a party tonight’ and suddenly you have 100 kids showing up.”
Still, an unnamed LAPD source told Los Angeles Magazine this month that investigators are following up on leads that could link a number of the most recent robberies to an organized crew working in Southern California.
Cristine DeBerry, the founder and executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance of California, said the crooks behind the thefts can use social media to manipulate the hordes of young people joining in the heists.
“Smash and grab robberies are the low-hanging fruit for organized crime rings, with sophisticated fencing operations often turning to online platforms like TikTok to recruit young people to supply stolen goods,” Ms. DeBerry told The Washington Times. “To ensure there’s greater accountability, police must implement investigative strategies that target the demand side, the organized fencing rings, and lawmakers must make it more difficult to sell stolen goods online like we did in California.”
Look for the trend to grow until thieves are caught and prosecuted, said Anthony Rodriguez, director of the Social Media in Law Enforcement Conference.
“These flash-mob robberies are becoming more prevalent because of the success rate of committing these crimes in numbers. It is harder for law enforcement to track down dozens of people rather than one or two suspects,” he told The Times.
He said police departments must train officers to monitor and get ahead of publicly posted content online that may relate to crime or violence.
Former L.A. mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, a Democrat who supported the failed recall effort against District Attorney George Gascon, seemed to take a shot at the local prosecutor last week by saying these robbers are being let off the hook. Mr. Caruso owned the Glendale property that was hit by thieves on Aug. 8.
“The time has come to demand that our elected officials change the laws to hold criminals accountable and start enforcing the laws in a fair and equitable manner,” Mr. Caruso said in a statement Friday. He added later that he heard “directly from small-business owners who feel defeated by the lack of accountability for criminals.”
The criminal activity has its roots in the peaceful flash mobs that became a cultural phenomenon over a decade ago, in which groups of people gathered to perform choreographed dances, for example.
The aptly named flash robs were reported as early as 2011.
What’s changed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic are the luxury retail stores being targeted.
The Louis Vuitton store in San Francisco was pillaged by at least 80 people in 2021 during a flash mob robbery.
One man was arrested in Chicago last year after he was part of a flash mob that stole $46,000 from a Prada store.
The flash robs have persisted into 2023.
A group of District of Columbia juveniles raided the city’s Chanel store in February after setting off a smoke bomb inside the business, according to police. New York authorities said a group of teens took over $10,000 worth of clothing from the AVA Galerie in May.
Some stores changed their entry and exit policies for customers in light of the brazen thefts. The Chanel store in D.C. previously let customers walk into the store on their own. Since the heist, the store has had customers stand in line outside the store.
Security guards unlock Chanel’s doors only when a sales associate is ready to receive the customer inside.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.