Masked Loot Luxury Shops: Flash Mob Robbers Terrorize USA

Saturday, November 27, 2021

Masked people looted luxury shops
Flash mob robbers terrorize USA

Robber gangs are currently terrifying the United States by clearing out luxury shops in large groups. Raids usually only last a few minutes. And they are increasing. California retail president speaks of “domestic terrorism.”

About 80 hooded men storm a luxury department store, rob the luxury department, and minutes later get away in 25 cars. Flash mob robberies like these in the California city of Walnut Creek are putting retailers and police on high alert at the start of the holiday season.

Shameless raids are particularly frequent in San Francisco and the surrounding area and the Chicago area. Last Saturday, the day before the attack on the Nordstrom department store in Walnut Creek, 40 people simultaneously stormed the branch of French luxury brand Louis Vuitton in Union Square in San Francisco, clearing shelves with lightning speed and driving into their cars. ran away.

Three Louis Vuitton stores in Chicago have been targeted by flash mob attacks. A gang of 14 people robbed goods worth more than $100,000 in the suburb of Oak Brook.

Retailers across the country fear imitators and are taking safety precautions. “The current level of organized theft in retail is unacceptable,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said. “Companies and customers should feel safe with their Christmas shopping.”

30 masked men storm the clothing store

The Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally began the busy Christmas shopping season in the United States. The governor previously assigned a special unit of the California Highway Patrol to work with local officials against large-scale thefts.

So far without success, flash mob attacks have been on the rise: In Hayward, near San Francisco, more than 30 burglars rob a jewelry store. Recordings from a surveillance camera in the nearby city of Oakland show more than 30 masked men breaking into a clothing store, clearing tracks of clothes and disappearing again in less than a minute.

Flash mob theft, also known as flash rob, is not a new phenomenon. But this year they have increased a lot. The extent and speed of the attack on the Nordstrom department store in Walnut Creek shocked and surprised many. “I wouldn’t even call it organized crime, it was domestic terrorism,” said Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retail Association of Fox40 television station in Sacramento.

“She’s bold, she’s tough”

Criminologist Jeffrey Ian Ross of the University of Baltimore sees no evidence that shoplifting has increased across the country. However, he suspects that the video of Flash Robbs spreading across the Internet may have inspired others to emulate. “She’s bold, she’s tough,” he says.

So far it is not clear whether there are links between the multiple groups theft and how the people involved communicate, coordinate and resell the stolen goods. Of the nearly 80 people involved in the Walnut Creek attack so far, only three have been apprehended. Nine men were charged with robbing San Francisco’s Union Square.

Criminologist Ross fears predatory bottle mobs will never be fully resolved. The number of murders and violent crimes has increased in the United States and the police are at their limit, he says. If again dozens of tons of goods are stolen, “the police can’t stand”.