The chaos began Friday night when thieves smashed the window of a Louis Vuitton store in San Francisco’s Union Square and looted it. The criminals also trespassed about a dozen nearby locations through theft and vandalism, police said, including a Burberry and Hermes store, as well as an eyewear store and marijuana dispensaries.
On Saturday night, the attack on Nordstrom in nearby Walnut Creek was even bolder: Just before closing time, about 80 people jumped out of a group of cars and swarmed the aisles, many escaping with merchandise. Two employees were assaulted, one of whom was pepper sprayed.
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A little after midnight Sunday, the criminals used a sledgehammer to smash the windows of Louis Vuitton and Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, police reported, but patrol cars arrived to scare the thieves away before they could enter. On Monday night, another group attempted to break into Nordstrom in the Grove shopping center in Los Angeles before leading police into a high-speed chase.
Organized retail theft is nothing new. In recent years, networks have focused on Rolex watches, fine jewelry, and Apple products in multiple locations.
But a weekend in which high-end stores in famous shopping districts were hit by large and seemingly sophisticated robbery rings has garnered national attention, as the holiday shopping season begins and retailers wait for customers to finally come back as the coronavirus crisis subsides.
Governor Gavin Newsom described the incidents as “people smashing, grabbing, stealing people’s items, creating havoc and terror in the streets.” Newsom explained that he was not only speaking as a governor, but also as an owner.
“My business has been violated three times this year,” said Newsom, who owns a hospitality business that includes wine shops and restaurants. “I have no empathy or sympathy for these people, and they must be held accountable.”
The reaction to the robberies has followed now familiar political lines, with some conservatives blaming California’s criminal justice reform policies.
But while the incidents were terrifying for those caught in their midst, they do not point to a massive increase in such crimes.
Robberies increased 3.2% in 2021 in Los Angeles compared to 2020, but are 14.1% lower than in 2019. In and around Union Square in San Francisco, these crimes decreased almost 5% from 2020 to 2021, while that robberies fell 2.3%.
Still, anarchy was met with outrage in liberal San Francisco, with some keenly aware of the message it might send.
“What happens when people vandalize and commit that level of crime in San Francisco? We not only lose those businesses, we lose those jobs, ”Mayor London Breed told reporters. “We lose the tax revenue that helps sustain our economy and that helps support many of the social service programs that we have in the city in the first place. We cannot allow that to happen ”.
Newsom said the state would be more aggressive in helping to catch and prosecute retail theft networks, so it will allocate more money for the work in next year’s budget.
He touted the successes of the state’s retail crime task force, which he reinstated in July amid criticism of his criminal justice record and an impeachment campaign that mocked him as “soft on crime.”
Newsom said the task force had conducted 773 investigations and recovered stolen merchandise worth a total of nearly $ 20 million.
The California Highway Patrol would immediately increase its presence “in and around high traffic areas,” as the holiday shopping season reaches its climax, the governor added.
Greg Totten, executive director of the California District Attorneys Association, noted that most shoplifting cases can only be classified as misdemeanors, even when it is clear that organized retail robbery is at stake.
“There are now huge hurdles to overcome to show that it rises to the level of organized retail theft,” Totten explained. “These poor retailers are suffering. We are not only talking about large stores and luxury retailers, but also small businesses. “
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Captain Jonathan Tippet, who heads the institution’s Robbery and Homicide Division, noted that there appeared to be several groups committing such robberies, some of them inspired copycats. on social media.
He pointed out that thieves who attack luxury stores have been emboldened by the perception that penalties for crimes have decreased. “They find this to be a lucrative venture, with consequences they don’t think are too bad,” Tippet explained.
The captain added that it is a trend that the Los Angeles police are seeing alongside robberies at home and on the streets. “Sooner or later, someone will be shot and killed,” Tippet said.
Although Los Angeles as a whole has not seen an increase in burglaries, some individual neighborhoods have been hit hard. In the Wilshire Division, which includes much of the modern Melrose Avenue retail corridor, there has been a 20% increase in thefts since 2020.
Beverly Hills police launched a controversial crackdown last year on Rodeo Drive after merchants complained of increased crime.
The effort is now the subject of lawsuits alleging that police deliberately targeted black buyers. Ninety people were arrested in the crackdown. Documents obtained by the Times showed that 80 of them were black, four were Latino, three were white, two were Asian, and one was classified as “other.”
Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retail Association, said this weekend’s thefts dominated the conversation in the industry.
“A week ago I would have said it’s the supply chain, the ports, and now this is the biggest thing,” Michelin said. “I heard it from legislators, from the governor’s office. It’s frustrating because we’ve been insisting on the fact that this is a growing problem in California. “
He said he was working with lawmakers to target the online marketplace where stolen items are bought and sold. “We need to close the places where they can sell these objects,” added Michelin. “If you see that some of these products are sold at very cheap prices, they are probably stolen.”
Rick Caruso, a prominent Los Angeles developer whose malls include Grove, mentioned in an interview hours before the incident at his mall that organized theft of retailers should be taken seriously.
“The moment you say, ‘We are going to tolerate some level of crime,’ you send a signal to criminals to test the system,” Caruso said. “The more successful they are, the more emboldened they become.”
So far, three people have been arrested in connection with the Walnut Creek Nordstrom robberies. Police said they are reviewing surveillance footage to identify other criminals.
In the case of the Louis Vuitton raid in San Francisco, the video shows a man running out of the store with his arms full of clothing pressed against his chest. Nearby, the police run towards a car and hit it with clubs; finally removes an occupant and detains him.
At least eight people have been arrested and the surveillance footage is expected to lead to more arrests.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said the city is adjusting traffic patterns near high-end stores so thieves can’t just park out front, commit a crime and jump into the car. He stressed that he would also put enough officers in vulnerable areas to prevent a crowd from overwhelming the security of the store.
“We are going to do everything we can to put an end to this madness,” Scott said.
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