They appear like a swarm of locusts, rob a store in a few minutes and escape by car: luxury brands are helpless in the face of a wave of lightning thefts perpetrated as the end of the year holidays approach in the United States. .
On Saturday, about 80 masked people raided a Nordstrom department store in a shopping mall in Walnut Creek, near San Francisco, taking their loot in 25 waiting cars. The day before, about forty thieves had raided a Louis Vuitton store in San Francisco.
Fire arms
The French luxury brand had been the victim a few days earlier of another lightning attack near Chicago, when fifteen people had stolen more than $ 100,000 in bags and clothing. It was the third assault on the ensign in a month in the region.
Faced with these raids, the country’s stores are taking extra precautions by strengthening their security services, but the surprise effect is difficult to counter. And thieves do not hesitate to resort to violence. In Oakland, gangs targeting cannabis stores opened fire on police.
Key period for traders
“The level of organized shoplifting that we are seeing is just unacceptable,” California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday. “Stores and customers should feel safe while shopping for the holidays,” he said.
These thefts occur at a key time for US merchants: Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday” will kick off the Christmas shopping season. Gavin Newsom ordered a state highway police unit specializing in organized crime to work with local law enforcement to resolve the cases.
At the time of this announcement, a gang of around 40 thieves was robbing a jewelry store in Hayward, near San Francisco. Further north, in Oakland, a clothing store was emptied in a flash. The surveillance images show about thirty thieves, masked and hooded, entering the stall to come out with shoes, clothes or caps. The operation lasted less than a minute.
“Domestic terrorism”
These “flash mob thefts”, or lightning thefts, are not new in the United States, but they have accelerated in recent months and target pharmacies, small stores and luxury brands without distinction. And the number of thieves and the speed of their raids provoke disbelief.
“I wouldn’t even qualify that as organized crime, it’s domestic terrorism,” said Rachel Michelin, president of the California Traders Association, on local channel Fox40.
Overwhelmed police
For Jeffrey Ian Ross, professor of criminology at the University of Baltimore, there is no indication that shoplifting is on the rise across the country. But the media coverage of the raids and the dissemination of images on social networks may have inspired other groups. “It’s daring, the images are strong”.
Law enforcement, already overwhelmed by the increase in murders and other violent crimes, “cannot keep up” with the volume of stolen goods and the number of people reselling them, according to Jeffrey Ian Ross. Among the many gray areas of this phenomenon include the possible links between these organized thefts in the San Francisco area, or the way in which the perpetrators of these raids communicate and coordinate.
Of the 80 or so participants in the Walnut Creek raid, only three have so far been arrested. Nine others were charged Tuesday with several thefts, including that of the Vuitton store in San Francisco.
Rachel Michelin calls for tougher laws for this type of organized theft, believing that the thieves seem to coordinate via social networks. “We’re going to have to have a frank discussion about the existing laws which apparently don’t work,” she said.