Luxury mall latest to be hit by smash-and-grab thieves
A group of thieves smashed windows at a department store at a luxury mall in Los Angeles, triggering a police pursuit just days after high-end stores throughout the San Francisco Bay Area were targeted.
The latest incident in a national trend of smashand-grab crimes targeted a Nordstrom store at The Grove retail and entertain- ment complex. It came as the country’s largest consumer electronics chain said that an increase in organized theft was taking a toll on its bottom line.
Workers covered a large broken window at the Nordstrom with black plywood on Tuesday morning as secu- rity guards came in and out of the store. Passersby were allowed inside the retailer ahead of the upcoming Black Friday shopping weekend.
The thieves struck around 10:40 p.m. Monday, said Offi- cer Drake Madison, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. Officers pursued an SUV involved in the crime and the chase ended in South Los Angeles with three people taken into cus- tody, he said. The number of people involved in the crime was not known, Madison said.
The Grove incident followed a weekend of similar smash-and-grab thefts in the San Francisco Bay Area and Beverly Hills.
Groups of thieves, some carrying crowbars and hammers, smashed glass cases and window displays and ransacked high-end stores in brazen organized theft throughout the Bay Area, stealing jewelry, sunglasses, suitcases and other mer- chandise before fleeing in waiting cars.
The thefts are believed to be part of sophisticated criminal networks that recruit mostly young people to steal merchandise in stores throughout the coun- try and then sell it in online marketplaces.
Experts and law enforce- ment officials say the thefts are ratcheting up as the hol- iday shopping season gets underway.