Washington, Dec 14 (IANS): Smash-and-grab robberies are heading toward crisis levels in some US cities, with gangs of thugs rampaging unchecked through stores and grabbing anything in site.
On December 11, two robbers walked into a Chicago store wielding hammers and a gun, smashing through display cases and stealing several watches valued at $2 million, Xinhua news agency quoted local media reports as saying.
A security guard was shot and killed last month during a smash-and-grab robbery in Oakland, near San Francisco. He was protecting a local news crew while they covered the uptick of looting in the city.
Outside Chicago, thugs recently stampeded through a Louis Vuitton store, filling large plastic bags with merchandise worth over $120,000, the media reported.
A string of violent robberies took place all in one weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area. Those included an incident whereby thieves with hammers ransacked several clothing, jewellery and sunglasses stores.
On the same weekend, as many as 80 bandits carrying crowbars hit a Nordstrom department store outside San Francisco, attacking one employee with pepper spray and stealing as much merchandise as they could get their hands on. The group fled via waiting getaway carsd.
The same weekend saw roving groups of criminals carrying crowbars and hammers attack multiple luxury retailers, including Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Bloomingdale's, all around San Francisco's Union Square, media reported.
The recent surge in online shopping, due to the pandemic, has given criminals a vast marketplace in which to sell stolen goods.
Senior executive vice president for public affairs at the Retail Industry Leaders Association Michael Hanson said, "Criminals saw that (increase in online shopping) and said, 'Oh, my gosh. More people are shopping online. Let's go get more and more product to sell on marketplaces because we can make a lot of money'", as reported by The Hill, a political newspaper.
Critics said radical city officials are responsible for implementing policies that encourage smash-and-grab robberies. Those include downgrading offenses from felonies to misdemeanors.
According to the New York Post, over a dozen suspected looters in Los Angeles were arrested but rapidly released due to zero-bail policies that allow suspects to go free after arrest.
The 14 arrests followed a "rash" of 11 "flash-mob type" raids in which nearly $350,000 in goods was swiped in just 10 days last month in Los Angeles, with the most recent on November. 28, city Police Chief Michel Moore said, as reported in the New York Post.
California last year implemented a no bail policy for what the state called misdemeanors and lower-level felonies, in a bid to tamp down the prison population during the pandemic.
While the policy was supposed to be rescinded, it was kept in place in Los Angeles County.