L.A. MALL LATEST TO BE HIT IN SMASH-GRAB

A group of thieves smashed windows at a department store at a luxury mall in Los Angeles Monday night, 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 smash-andgrab crimes targeted a Nordstrom store at The Grove retail and entertainment 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 security guards and shoppers alike came in and out of the store.

The thieves struck around 10:40 p.m. Monday, said Officer Drake Madison, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson. Officers pursued an SUV involved in the crime and the chase ended with three people taken into custody, he said. The number of people involved was not known, Madison said.

The Grove incident followed a weekend of similar brazen thefts in the San Francisco Bay Area and Beverly Hills in which groups of people, some carrying crowbars and hammers, ransacked high-end stores and stole jewelry, sunglasses, suitcases, clothing and other merchandise before fleeing in waiting cars.

The thefts are believed to be part of sophisticated criminal networks that recruit mainly young people to steal merchandise in stores throughout the country and then sell it in online marketplaces.

The National Retail Federation said a recent survey found stores are seeing an increase in organized thefts and perpetrators being more aggressive. The flash mobs are usually organized by local people who recruit their crews and send them to steal specific merchandise requested by criminal organizations, said Ben Dugan, president of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail.

Those who do the stealing get paid between $500 and $1,000.