A large mob of men and boys plundered a gas station mini-mart over the weekend in the Los Angeles area, a crime that police said they couldn’t stop due to staffing constraints.

Videos posted on social media showed a crowd of about 100 breaking into an Arco gas station in Compton around 2:30 a.m. while the store’s clerk holed up in the bathroom.

The mob eventually was able to open the door and flood the establishment, raiding everything from the drinks and snacks out front to the cigarettes and condoms behind the counter.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told KABC-TV that thousands of dollars worth of goods were stolen and the business also suffered serious damage.

Despite that, the county deputies said that they were “outnumbered” and that responding to the store raid would have created “safety concerns”

“That’s our number one problem is not having the personnel, the units to respond to street takeovers,” Deputy Miguel Meza of the LASD told KABC. “If we have those personnel respond to just street takeovers, there’s no one else left.”

The takeover was one of the three that took place in Compton that same night, according to authorities.

“They’re just about every weekend,” LASD Sgt. Clarence Williams told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re doing our best we can to try to assist the citizens in dealing with this issue.”

One resident told KABC that these large takeovers happen two to three times a week.

Deputy Meza said that the sheriff’s office will work with California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles police to help prevent future street takeovers.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.