CRIME WATCH: Gang of 80 ransacks California Nordstrom store in quick one-minute raid + San Francisco crime wave

Source:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10226929/Gang-80-thieves-ransacks-California-Nordstrom-store-organized-raid-lasted-just-one-minute.html

"Eighty looters ransacked a Nordstrom store in California's Bay Area on Saturday night, injuring at least three employees in a raid that lasted less than a minute.

The large group,wearing ski masks and carrying crowbars, rushed the Walnut Creek store, stole an undetermined amount of merchandise and fled in their vehicles.

During the theft, two Nordstrom workers were punched and kicked, while another was sprayed with pepper spray.

All three individuals were treated for their injuries on scene.

Walnut Creek police have arrested three people in connection to the incident and they are facing various charges including robbery, conspiracy, burglary, possession of stolen property and a weapons charge.

The brazen robbery comes as Bay Area businesses reduce their hours due to a spate of brazen shoplifting incidents.

Locals are also slamming woke San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin over his failure to prosecute thefts.

San Francisco has also seen an uptick in property theft since a local law downgraded the theft of property less than $950 in value from a felony charge to a misdemeanor in 2014. 

Store staff and security now tend not to pursue or stop thieves who have taken anything worth less than $1,000."

The large group, reportedly wearing ski masks and carrying crowbars, rushed the Walnut Creek store, stole an undetermined amount of merchandise and fled in their vehicles

Dozens of officers responded to the scene around 9pm after Walnut Creek police received reports that approximately 80 people had run into the Nordstrom store and began looting and smashing shelves. 

NBC Bay Area reporter Jodi Hernandez, who witnessed the raid, shared several videos of the incident on Twitter.

She said approximately 25 cars were blocking the street as the gang of thieves stormed the store, some brandishing weapons.

Video shows the looters running down the street with bags and boxes holding presumed stolen goods before entering their getaway vehicles. 

'There was a mob of people,' Brett Barrett, who works at a nearby P.F. Chang's restaurant, told CBS San Francisco.

'The police were flying in.

It was like a scene out of a movie. It was insane.'   

An officer is shown pointing their weapon at what appears to be a car of suspected looters

Walnut Creek Lt. Ryan Hibbs told said his officers stopped one vehicle, recovered stolen property and arrested the man and woman occupying the automobile.

The man was charged with robbery, possession of stolen property, conspiracy to commit burglary and possession of burglary tools.

The woman was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm.

Police also arrested a man who fled on foot.

He was charged with robbery, possession of stolen property, conspiracy to commit burglary and possession of burglary tools.

Police said the incident at the Walnut Creek Nordstrom is not connected to the string of riots that took place over the weekend in wake of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.

The protests have erupted in several major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland. 

Although most have appeared to be mainly peaceful demonstrations with marching and chanting, law enforcement in Portland declared a riot Friday night as about 200 protesters were breaking windows, throwing objects at police and talking about burning down a local government building.

Saturday's looting comes after the Louis Vuitton store in San Francisco's Union Square was targeted and ransacked by a group of more than a dozen thieves.

Police responded to the store shortly after 8pm Friday where they 'observed several suspects involved in criminal acts.'

Witnesses recorded video of masked thieves running through the streets with their hands full of clothing items and bags.

Officers were seen chasing a thief to their parked getaway car and bashing in the windows with batons, dragging the culprit out of the car and restraining them on the sidewalk

Footage shows the decimated Louis Vuitton storefront with shattered glass all over the sidewalk and totally empty shelves as masked thieves running through the streets with their hands full of clothing items and bags (right)

The shattered glass at a San Francisco Louis Vuitton store was ransacked by more than a dozen thieves, eyewitnesses said

Police confirmed they had arrested multiple suspects and that the Louis Vuitton store may have not been the only one targeted. 

Last week, San Francisco's 'woke' District Attorney Chesa Boudin - who will face a recall election next year amid fury over his soft-on-crime policies - finally charged a 'prolific' female shoplifter, 41, who stole $40,000 in merchandise from the same Target in 120 incidents over a one-year period.

Aziza Graves was arrested Tuesday for her alleged shoplifting spree about two weeks after voters forced Boudin into a recall election, with a petition yielding 83,000 signatures - far above the 51,000 required by the city.

The push to hold Graves responsible only came after Target demanded that Boudin launch an investigation, which revealed that the store, at the Stonestown Galleria shopping mall, was hit by the same person more than 100 times between October 2020 and November 2021.

The push to arrest Aziza Graves, the 'prolific' shoplifter, only came after a request to the district attorney's office by the Target being looted, at the Stonestown Galleria shopping mall

Graves carried out her scheme by using self-checkout kiosks to appear as though she were paying for her merchandise.

She would scam the machine by scanning the items, but only submitting cash payments of $1, or sometimes even one cent

She would then waltz out of the store without completing the rest of her transactions, officials said.

Boudin said that Graves stole home goods like laundry detergent that are frequently stolen and resold for profit just a short walk from the looted store.

It is unclear how much Graves stole in each incident, though she is only being charged with a felony in eight cases, along with 120 misdemeanor counts of petty theft.

This is because, in San Francisco, charges of property theft less than $950 in value was downgraded from a felony to a misdemeanor in 2014.

Authorities have also reported a wave of thefts in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As of October 31, San Francisco police have received reports of 810 burglaries or attempted burglaries this year in the jurisdiction of the Mission District Police station, marking a 13 percent increase from the same time last year. 

Walgreens has already closed at 17 of its 70 San Francisco stores because of constant shoplifting.

One of the stores closing was subject of a viral video showing a man filling a garbage bag full of goods as security guards watched and let him go

Businesses throughout the city have reduced their hours or closed entirely because of the uptick in property theft, and Boudin has been lambasted by local critics for 'destroying the fabric of our city.'

A Safeway grocery store became one of the most recent business to suffer from the rampant shoplifting, citing it as the reason for scaling back its round-the-clock service to just 6am to 9pm in an announcement made last week.

Boudin's office has only been charging people of theft in 46% of all cases since taking office. In comparison, his predecessor George Gascon made such charges in 62% of all cases in 2018 and 2019, according to city data.

Boudin has an even lower rate in petty crime and has only made charges in 35% of all cases, compared to Gascon's 58%.

Boudin has also convicted far less people of both crimes than Gascon, only convicting thieves in 79% of thefts and 62% of petty thefts.

Gascon has an 82% conviction rate for theft and a 77% conviction rate for petty theft.

Overall, Boudin has charged people with crimes in 48% of all reported cases, while Gascon has a charging rate of 54%. 

Boudin has had two upticks in charging rates: rape and narcotics.

Another promise he made was to take more alleged rape and narcotics perpetrators to court, even if he loses the case.

Crime in San Francisco has been climbing steadily, with larceny theft outweighing any other infraction

Boudin has been charging people for theft in less than 50% of all cases throughout his tenure, new data reveals

He has also convicted far less people of both crimes than Gascon, only convicting thieves in 79% of thefts and 62% of petty thefts

He has charged 63% of people with rape in reported cases, while Gascon has only charged 53%, and Boudin has charged 60% of people with narcotics-related arrests as compared to Gascon's 47%.

However, such cases have had less success in court as Boudin has only convicted 70% of those he charged with rape as opposed to Gascon's 81%.

Meanwhile, Boudin has only convicted 62% of all perpetrators in narcotics arrests as opposed to Gascon's 75%.

Boudin previously argued that the pandemic is to blame for the drop in his charging rate, citing the reduced operation of San Francisco's court system caused by COVID-19 restrictions "