LA mall latest to be hit by smash-and-grab thieves

Survey: Stores seeing increase in organized thefts, perpetrators more aggressive

LOS ANGELES — A group of thieves smashed windows at department store at a luxury mall in Los Angeles, triggering a police pursuit just days after others targeted high-end stores in Beverly Hills and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

The latest incident in a national trend of smashand-grab 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. The LA group struck around 10:40 p.m. Monday, said Officer Drake Madison, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. 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 in the crime was not known, Madison said.

In the Bay Area, groups of thieves, some carrying crowbars and hammers, smashed glass cases and window displays and ransacked high-end stores, stealing jewelry, sunglasses, suitcases 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. Experts and law enforcement officials say the thefts are ratcheting up as the holiday shopping season gets underway.

The National Retail Federation said a recent survey found stores are seeing an increase in organized thefts and perpetrators being more aggressive. The electronics chain Best Buy on Tuesday cited organized theft as one of the reasons for a decline in gross profit margin in the third quarter.

“We are definitely seeing more and more particularly organized retail crime and incidents of shrink in our locations,” Best Buy CEO Corie Barry told analysts during a conference call Tuesday. “This is a real issue that hurts and scares real people.”

The flash mobs are usually organized by local people who recruit their crews and send them to steal specific merchandise requested by criminal organizations throughout the country, said Ben Dugan, president of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail.

Those who do the stealing get paid between $500 and $1,000 to take as much as they can and bring it back to organizers who ship it to other parts of the country.

Some people were also armed with guns in nearly all the weekend robberies.

“We’re not talking about someone who needs money or needs food. These are people who go out and do this is for high profit, and for the thrill,” said Ben Dugan, president of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that his office met with retailers over the weekend who asked for more police patrols. He said increased enforcement would start immediately “in and around areas that are highly trafficked and coming into the holiday season Black Friday in shopping malls.”