14 suspects arrested in LA smash-and-grab robberies

14 suspects arrested in LA smash-and-grab robberies

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles police have arrested 14 suspects in connection with a series of smash-and-grab robberies at local stores last month.

Police say there were at least 11 such robberies around Los Angeles in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, resulting in the theft of some $338,000 in retail goods.

Many of them involved flash mobs who swoop in quickly to a retail store, like Nordstrom at the Grove, smash glass cases and grab as many items as they can before fleeing.

The 14 arrests were linked to five such incidents. Three arrests resulted after a long, high-speed chase in which officers caught the suspects with car full of stolen merchandise.

Police acknowledged that after the arrests, all 14 suspects are now free again, under no-and-low bail policies that have been enacted in Los Angeles County recently. At least one suspect was a juvenile.

These criminal acts which involve a coordinated effort by multiple people to surge into a store and rob them, needs to be called something other than a simple "smash and grab." And the crimes should no longer be treated like a misdemeanor.

A lone person going into a store to smash and grab $900 worth of stuff, might be viewed in some cities as a misdemeanor. However, this should change when multiple people get together to smash into a store to steal tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise. These people colluded to steal tens of thousands, and to treat them as random individuals who simply happened to arrive at the store at the same time, to steal, is a ridiculous position to take.

If twenty people work together to overwhelm store security and the police, to steal merchandise, they need to be treated as a criminal group, not as random individuals. Twenty people stealing $500 or more each, should be treated as a felony.

If one person knocks a man to the ground and kicks him once, that might be a misdemeanor. However, if twenty people each kick the man once, they will probably kill him. Should we treat felony murder by a group, as twenty individual misdemeanors???

 

With the total amount stolen it has to be grand larceny ???

 

I'm just pushing back against these news reporters trying to play down these organized thefts, as if they are just misdemeanors. If cities do not react properly, and allow these organized thefts to rip off stores, and then released on misdemeanor charges, they will lose commerce and destroy jobs, and their city will sink into a crime ridden smash and grab freedom fest

 

i am shocked that they have not managed to arrest a lot more of these organized criminal thieves. Sometimes they have parked a long line of vehicles right in front of their target building. I would have thought there would be enough cameras to get photos of vehicle tags and descriptions and pictures of many of the perps as they exit then reenter their vehicles.

 

The rise of "Bait Stores"

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One would think that they would be guilty of a RICO crime as these are organized and organized crimes can be Rico’s

 

When a whole bunch of thieving scum show up simultaneously and park and all enter the stores in a bunch THAT IS ORGANIZED CRIME, and should be prosecuted as such. The 14 who were arrested were quickly released to rob and steal again.

 

Why bother to arrest people who will probably be released without bail?

 

It’s not just the dollar amount that they steal, it’s also the damage they cause to the doors, windows showcases that should be calculated into things.

 

14 suspects arrested in LA smash-and-grab robberies

Thanks but it doesn't help if the justice system releases them right away. The policies need to change and so do the district attorneys.

 

What reporters? Links please, or is this just more hyperbole?

 

"Christians by the millions, and all of the same quality." -Kierkegaard.

Home Depot jumped down retail theft rabbit hole and found a surprising perpetrator
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Pastor allegedly ran theft ring
"Robert Dell, a pastor who ran a drug recovery program, was arrested in Tampa, Fla. in August after a seven-month investigation showed that he was allegedly behind an organized retail-crime ring that sold $3 million worth of merchandise through an eBay account since 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal."