Bear spray used on security guards in SoCal robbery involving 30 to 50 people

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Myrtle

Senior Member
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U.S.A.

Thirty to 50 people were part of a robbery crew Saturday that swarmed a Nordstrom department store and used bear spray on security guards at a Southern California mall.

The heist was reported around 4 p.m. at a Nordstrom in the Westfield Topanga Mall in Canoga Park. The thieves used bear spray on two security guards who confronted them, police said.

Bear spray, deployed from pressurized canisters, contains capsaicin and other ingredients that can inflame the eyes and upper respiratory system. An ambulance responded to the mall, but it was not immediately clear whether anyone was taken the hospital.

The thieves took off with $60,000 to $100,000 worth of luxury handbags and high-end clothing, an LAPD spokesman said. Videos of the incident circulating on social media show the thieves, many wearing hoods and masks, ransacking the store as shelves fall and glass breaks. The suspects can be seen scooping up armfuls of items and running for the exit.

A shopper who was inside the store said she saw the robbers storm into the store. Some appeared to target Yves Saint Laurent products.

“Terrible. I've never seen anything like it,” said the shopper named Janie. “This is a disgrace. It is. It's a disgrace.

“I saw three cars pull up, and I saw these guys just running out with all these purses. They just grabbed all the YSL.”

The robbers left the scene in several cars. No arrests have been reported, but the LAPD said it will "exhaust all efforts to bring those responsible into custody."

"Topanga Division officers were on the scene quickly and have several investigative leads," the LAPD said in a statement. "To criminals, it is just property taken. To those who live in the area and patronize the Topanga Mall it is a loss of feeling safe. The LAPD will exhaust all efforts to bring those responsible into custody and seek criminal prosecution.

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/...anoga-park-police-robbery-nordstroms/3204853/

How would you like to have been shopping at Nordstrom's Saturday?

What do you think should be done about these smash and grab mobs?
 

I was shopping at a women's clothing store, many years ago. The family was with me. A group of people came
in, and started looking through the clothes. Something struck me as unusual, which I mentioned to my O/H.
As soon as we moved to a different section of the store, those people were running out the doors with arms
full of clothing. They got into a van that was waiting, and sped away.
 
Until people take this seriously nothing is done... retail stores worried that if staff try to intervene they will be injured or killed so it is a employment liability thing. everyone thinks these retailers can just absorb loss or insurance covers it but it is passed on to anyone else shopping there....

I saw a "joke" headline recently about stores asking people to round up at register to offset all the theft that week.

So when they grab all they can and run out it is going somewhere .. resold online i bet .... i have heard too shipped out of country
so crack down on sites that resell and inspection of what is shipped. make it harder to resale
 
dobielvr said:
They should have something drop from the ceiling. Like a pink dye, have it glow in the dark.
That way the criminals would be easy to spot.
Click to expand...
I like that. How about adding a huge net in front of the exits that drops down and wraps them up for the police?

What will happen is people will stop shopping in stores that don't stop these robberies, the stores will end up closing, jobs will be lost and the malls will end up deserted.

Once is all it would take for me to never go into that store again.
 
dobielvr said:
They should have something drop from the ceiling. Like a pink dye, have it glow in the dark.
That way the criminals would be easy to spot.
Click to expand...
Great idea............WAIT, the pink dye just STAINED a half a million worth of inventory, the display cases, the clothing racks, the floors and the CUSTOMERS who were not stealing anything. You didn't THINK this through....Did you ?

A better way..........Install "man trap doors " at each exit, that shut automatically, when triggered by the security people. Now you have the thieves contained. The doors should be made of LEXAN the same see through panels that are seen in hockey rinks, above the boards. You can hit them with a sledge hammer, and they won't break. JimB.
 
Myrtle said:
I like that. How about adding a huge net in front of the exits that drops down and wraps them up for the police?

What will happen is people will stop shopping in stores that don't stop these robberies, the stores will end up closing, jobs will be lost and the malls will end up deserted.

Once is all it would take for me to never go into that store again.
Click to expand...
Yes!! That's even better.
It really seems like such an easy solution....
 
jimintoronto said:
Great idea............WAIT, the pink dye just STAINED a half a million worth of inventory, the display cases, the clothing racks, the floors and the CUSTOMERS who were not stealing anything. You didn't THINK this through....Did you ?

A better way..........Install "man trap doors " at each exit, that shut automatically, when triggered by the security people. Now you have the thieves contained. The doors should be made of LEXAN the same see through panels that are seen in hockey rinks, above the boards. You can hit them with a sledge hammer, and they won't break. JimB.
Click to expand...
Ha ha....Well I guess I didn't think it through.....thanks JimB.
 
jimintoronto said:
Great idea............WAIT, the pink dye just STAINED a half a million worth of inventory, the display cases, the clothing racks, the floors and the CUSTOMERS who were not stealing anything. You didn't THINK this through....Did you ?

A better way..........Install "man trap doors " at each exit, that shut automatically, when triggered by the security people. Now you have the thieves contained. The doors should be made of LEXAN the same see through panels that are seen in hockey rinks, above the boards. You can hit them with a sledge hammer, and they won't break. JimB.
Click to expand...
Talk about not thinking it through. Seal the doors and you trap innocent employees and customers in the same space as these thieves, at least some of whom are armed and all are apt to be dangerous when caged like animals.
 
StarSong said:
Talk about not thinking it through. Seal the doors and you trap innocent employees and customers in the same space as these thieves, at least some of whom are armed and all are apt to be dangerous when caged like animals.
Click to expand...
You don't understand what a "man trap system " is do you ? There are TWO sets of doors, with a 20 foot walk space between them. The mob runs into the man trap, the front doors close, then the second set of doors also close. Trapped, as the name suggests. Cuff and stuff as the coppers say....JimB.
 
jimintoronto said:
You don't understand what a "man trap system " is do you ? There are TWO sets of doors, with a 20 foot walk space between them. The mob runs into the man trap, the front doors close, then the second set of doors also close. Trapped, as the name suggests. Cuff and stuff as the coppers say....JimB.
Click to expand...
And what of the innocents who are trying to escape but are trapped with them?
 
Once the bear spray was used, that negated any shopkeepers limited detention of shoplifters. The victim can, employee or not, defend themselves, which would include a citizens arrest or restraint of liberty. Any such Company policy of "do not interfere", or such, is then out the door.
 
Appalling. Just when you think the most brazen flash mob robbery yet the next is worse in some way.

Some of the thieves seem to have trouble with the cables the most and wound up dragging what ever they were attached to. One criminal dragged the entire rack towards the door. Maybe that's the way to go. Anchor in any rack that has stuff with a security cable on it.
 
Sometimes stores don't seem to learn, though.

A couple of years ago, I was in a store that had a display of expensive purses right in front of the sliding doors to the parking lot.

Three "ladies" sashayed in, grabbed most of the purses and raced out the doors to a waiting van with the side door open. Off they went.

The next week, I was in there again and the expensive purses were again right at the door. I read a few weeks later that the same thing happened once more.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in there and sure enough, there was the purse display, ripe for the picking.

I'm sure they'll be back.
 
Make no mistake folks, such increasing organized criminal activity may be a reflection of building societal anarchy between haves and have-nots. Or more correctly envious others that in their own minds, don't have enough to be satisfied, so can easily rationalization taking by force instead of paying. A dystopian future within a monkey overpopulated planet, with areas under civil control and others in rural zones and poor areas relatively uncontrolled and savaged by take what they want armed gangs in powerful vehicles.

Thanks to Wall Street and their Ivy League elites that sacrificed the rest of we for their globalization profits with endless growth. Especially back-dooring policy for excessive population growth from multiple external cultures that grates against a civil transition. Same thing has created turmoil throughout the Western World that has increasingly been rejected by citizens wherever.
 
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