Los Angeles police were on tactical alert throughout the city late Friday after a wave of “flash mob” robberies in high-end stores was forcibly robbed.
And in Lakewood, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department detectives were investigating a possible robbery at a home depot after people stormed into the store Friday night and escaped with sledgehammers and bolt cutters, authorities and a shop clerk said.
Friday’s tactical warning follows a string of incidents in which groups broke into stores across Los Angeles – including a Nordstrom in the Grove Mall and several stores in the Beverly Center in the Beverly Grove neighborhood – and fled with thousands of dollars in merchandise.
Three people were arrested Tuesday in connection with the Nordstrom incident in which up to 20 people stole $ 5,000 worth of goods after breaking a shop window, police said.
In Canoga Park, several people entered a Nordstrom store in the Westfield Topanga & the Village shopping mall on Wednesday evening, where they attacked a security guard with bear spray and got away with goods.
At the Home Depot in Lakewood, just before 8 p.m. Friday, more than half a dozen people entered the store and stole goods, Deputy Miguel Meza said.
“Witnesses saw several vehicles start,” Meza said.
A shop clerk told the Times in a telephone interview that men were taking sledgehammers and crowbars and some were wearing hooded sweatshirts.
Detectives were on site late Friday interviewing witnesses.
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