Thieves smashed displays and stole an estimated $60,00 – $100,000 worth of merchandise from Nordstrom in the Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga Park on Saturday, August 12, 2023. (Courtesy of Spectee)
When brazen groups of thieves in all-black clothes and hoodies sprinted into the Nordstrom at the Topanga Mall, the Yves Saint Laurent store at the Americana on Brand in Glendale and a pop-up Gucci store at South Coast Plaza, 911 calls from startled workers and shoppers came immediately.
It wasn’t soon enough.
Stealth planning, disguises, sheer ransacking speed – the thieves are in and out in two to four minutes – and getaways in multiple cars mean even a rapid law enforcement response can be too slow.
With flash mobs of thieves committing dozens of heists in high-end and other stores around Southern California since early July, the problem became so dire that officials announced a task force focusing on cell tower dumps, surveillance video and other high-tech tools.
Arrests are starting to happen. But halting the trend may take more time.
“A lot of this stuff happens over social media and that’s how they coordinate with one another. A lot of these individuals don’t even know each other,” said Adam Bercovici, a former Los Angeles police lieutenant and now owner and CEO of Titan National Consulting Group. “Essentially, that’s why it’s a flash mob: ‘be here at this time …’ ”
Los Angeles police, working with other local, state and federal agencies, are investigating 21 flash mob thefts in Los Angeles County, Deputy Chief Kris Pitcher said. Other flash mobs, or “flash robs,” as police call them, have occurred in neighboring counties.
“They come in groups of 10 to 40 people and they overwhelm the store,” Pitcher said. “You won’t get pushback when you come in with those numbers. No one wants to get injured. They do it quickly, they overwhelm and take all the high-end goods.”
In most cases, Los Angeles police believe gang members, whether a specific gang or individual members from multiple gangs, are meeting up to carry out the massive, highly visible retail thefts, Pitcher said.
In other cases, teenagers and young adults are looting stores looking for items to keep, Bercovici said. However, thefts involving groups of teenagers generally have targeted smaller businesses like 7-Eleven or AMPM convenience stores, Pitcher said.
Shoppers on edge: ‘It’s nerve-wracking’
Among the biggest flash mob robberies were at the Americana on Brand in Glendale on Aug.8 and the Topanga Mall in Canoga Park on Aug. 12, where groups of thieves made out with an estimated $300,000 and $100,000 worth of designer handbags and other merchandise, respectively, officials said.
Since then, other flash mobs have turned up in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, mainly targeting high-end chain stores in malls.
In Costa Mesa, a group of five to 10 people rushed into a temporary Gucci store at South Coast Plaza on Aug. 16 and stole about $100,000 worth of merchandise, police said.
And in the Inland Empire, Riverside police asked for help from the public in identifying suspects who, as a group, stole “several thousand dollars’ worth of designer handbags” from the Nordstrom Rack store at the Canyon Springs shopping center on July 10 and Aug. 16.
However, according to the National Retail Federation, high-end stores with luxury items represent the minority when it comes to targets for organized retail crime.
“(Organized retail crime) groups also target everyday consumer goods,” David S. Johnston, vice president of asset protection and retail operations with the federation, said in a video the organization made on retail crime. “They have a preference (for) goods of lesser value with an increased resale value.”
Some then sell the stolen merchandise to individuals or a group, called a “fence” by law enforcement, through online marketplaces, swap meets or seemingly legitimate businesses, CHP officials said. The buyers may or may not be aware the items they purchase were stolen.
The recent flash mob thefts have left some shoppers on edge.
“I am aware of everything around me when I’m shopping,” said Rose Smith, 66, a Topanga Mall shopper. “It’s nerve-wracking. It’s very scary.”
South Coast Plaza shopper Alya Khalid said she watched some of the flash mob robberies around the region play out on TikTok, with groups of up to 50 robbers tearing through high-end stores. “It’s crazy they got away,” she said.
Khalid, 32, noticed the security presence at South Coast Plaza several days ago and said it made her feel safer.
“There’s always a risk they could come back,” she said.
But the possibility that a flash mob might suddenly appear won’t necessarily change shopping habits.
“It’s really rare,” said Joseph Saad, 42, who shops at the Topanga Mall. “You have to keep your head on a swivel these days, anyway.
“People are doing this because people are starving and people want what they can’t have,” he added. “I don’t think anything can be done about the robberies.”
But officials are trying.
On Aug. 17, Los Angeles city and county officials announced the formation of a task force made up of 22 full-time officers from around L.A. County who can call on a broad swath of law enforcement sources, including the California Highway Patrol’s retail theft unit.
The same day, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, in a written statement, blamed “the inept and lax policies championed by the state Legislature and other elected officials like Mayor Bass and Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon,” and cited “decriminalization, decarceration (sic) and zero bail,” which he said emboldens criminals. Neither official appears to have publicly responded.
Two weeks later, Spitzer issued another statement to include smash-and-grab robbers, saying he would “thoroughly investigate and prosecute smash and grab to the fullest extent of the law,” which would include pursuing life sentences for six defendants accused of holding customers and employees at gunpoint while stealing more than $87,000 in items from The Jewelry Exchange in Tustin in April 2022.
Gascon, days before the formation of the task force, called flash mobs “outrageous” and harmful to the whole community, not just their immediate victims.
On Aug., 24, task force officials announced 11 arrests related to four flash mob investigations. As of Sept. 1, Pitcher said, the task force made 15 arrests, all of which led to felony filings by the DA’s office.
The following week, CHP officials announced two arrests and the seizure of nearly $200,000 worth of stolen items from Victoria’s Secret and CVS stores in the greater Los Angeles region by targeting a location in the downtown Los Angeles area where stolen merchandise was being sold.
Who’s reselling the goods?
Despite the summer wave, organized retail thefts are not new to Southern California.
Bercovici, a 30-year LAPD officer who retired as a lieutenant in 2012 after serving as officer-in-charge on a number of task forces, said he’s worked plenty of organized theft cases involving Colombian and South American theft groups.
He is now the owner and CEO of Titan National Consulting Group, which provides expert testimony or expert witness on the topics of security, and law enforcement use-of-force, among others.
The difference between the flash mobs Bercovici and his teams investigated compared to today’s is that much of the organization is done on social media.
“What we’re seeing now is size-coordinated, spontaneous efforts because of social media and other messaging apps that allow that quick communication,” Bercovici said. “That’s very different.”
Pitcher said social media does play a factor, but “it doesn’t necessarily drive it.”
LAPD has dealt with groups of high school kids overwhelming convenience store clerks for several years, but said these flash mobs are well-planned and organized.
“They’ve cased it out, they’ve looked at it, they get it over with quickly,” Pitcher added. “It’s different from the thrill of doing it for public consumption.”
Organized retail crime rings target items that are difficult to track and are easily resold. Stolen items such as Tide detergent, baby formula, cosmetics, Louis Vuitton handbags and vitamins that once were hawked at flea markets or street corners are now fenced online by gangs to raise money for their activities, said Rachel Michelin president and CEO of the California Retailers Association.
“What we are seeing is more sophistication,” Michelin said. “We see a lot more recruiting; they recruit street gangs, the homeless. They will pay them 100 bucks to go in and steal.”
In many cases, the suspects – almost all wearing hoodies and masks – have been in and out in between two and four minutes, Pitcher said. Police are also learning most of the getaway vehicles are either rented under fictitious names, or “cold plated”, meaning they’re affixed with license plates that don’t match the vehicle’s registration, most likely because a thief has stolen a license plate off another car.
And while stores may be staffed with security guards, Bercovici said there isn’t much those guards can do from a legal standpoint.
“A security guard’s job has always been to observe and report,” Bercovici said. “A use-of-force has to be justified in the protection of yourself or someone else.”
Bercovici and Pitcher encourage store employees, customers and security guards caught up in a flash mob to “be good witnesses,” rather than trying to get in the way or prevent any thieves from leaving.
Officials emphasized the thieves are there for the property, and, as Bercovici said, they “don’t want to get into it with anyone, either.”
Sgt. Jim Kelley, a member of the CHP’s Organized Retail Crime Unit since its inception in 2019, agreed that those who are in a store when a flash mob hits should get as far away from it as possible and not engage with any of the criminals.
“You never know what the thief has in mind, or what they’ll do to get away,” he said.
Marcie Fedor said her son once worked at the Abercrombie & Fitch store in South Coast Plaza. He’d been trained to “stand back” and not touch any robbers in the event of a heist, she said.
“It’s true, it’s best to keep the employees safe by telling them not to interfere,” she said. “But it’s still maddening to watch that and not be able to do anything.”
Officials do recommend being observant and keying in on details to help investigators. Those who see thieves running outside should keep an eye out for license plates and vehicle descriptions.
Glendale Police Chief Manuel Cid credited a quick police response with preventing a group of about 12 people wearing hoods, masks and gloves from breaking into a Gucci store at Americana on Brand on Aug. 2, six days before a flash mob flooded the Yves Saint Laurent store in the same shopping center, fleeing in a dozen vehicles, many of which had no license plates.
Five suspects in the Yves Saint Laurent case have been arrested, Glendale police said.
“There needs to be a lot more resources and something you can dedicate 24/7 from the time of the occurrence to the time you follow these individuals,” Pitcher said. “Everything you can get out of technology will lead us to these suspects.”
Bercovici said finding out where the items are being sold, whether online or in the street, or finding the person sending the message on social media, is paramount to figuring out who is involved.
“You’re going to have to grab some people and get them to roll over on each other,” he said. “In my experience, even with the spontaneous essence of these crimes, there’s still someone who is coordinating this stuff. You have to find who is moving the material nowadays.”
Kelley, whose team is working with local law enforcement agencies on some of the cases, said agencies are doing what they can while being understaffed at a time when there’s “a ton of retail theft going on …They’re doing everything they can to combat it, short of sitting outside the store every day as the store is open.”
High and low-tech tactics
Retailers were hit hard even before the flash mob wave, said Johnston, with the retail federation.
According to the latest National Retail Security Survey, shoplifting, theft and organized retail crime led to losses of about $94.5 billion nationwide in 2021, with organized retail crime alone accounting for nearly half that amount.
Retailers are increasingly employing high-tech, low-tech and no tech methods to combat the thieves, including next-generation video surveillance systems, facial-recognition cameras, license-plate readers, radio-frequency identification tags, case locks, more training and increased security.
They have also advocated for legislation that would increase penalties for theft and would make it easier for law enforcement agencies to share information.
At Ulta Beauty, which entering this year had 1,355 stores in 50 states, including 168 in California, CEO Dave Kimbell told analysts during an earnings call that theft had increased and that the crimes have become more violent and aggressive.
Ulta is increasing staffing, hiring more security and using in-store fixtures to prevent theft. Fragrances, a frequent target of thieves, will go into locked cabinets at 70% of Ulta’s stores nationwide by the end of the year, Chief Operating Officer Kecia Steelman said during the call.
“We’ve invested in security guards, armed security guards in some locations. We’re partnering with our landlords on what can we do to help police the parking lots and deter them from even coming in,” Steelman said. “It’s a full-court press out there.”
At the Ulta Beauty in Menifee, some perfumes were seen in locked plastic cases recently. Menifee police Capt. Dave Gutierrez said that store has been able to reduce thefts.
At a similar store in the region without the locked cases, police said they have had success catching people who steal after shopping center management added cameras in the parking lot. And some of the merchandise has an anti-theft device attached that beeps and then sends out an alarm if the product is concealed and moves.
Because some flash mobs have been so successful, Kelley said, it’s likely others will at least continue to try.
“People are thinking of different ways to do it,” he said. “People see a tactic working and they copycat it or do what the other guy is doing.
“Ultimately, these guys get caught,” Kelley added. “They always do. It’s just a matter of how many more times this will happen before they’re found.”
Anyone with information about flash mob robberies or the identities of additional suspects is asked to call the Organized Retail Crime Task Force, Detective Arnold, at (818) 374-9420. After hours or on weekends, call 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (1-877-527-3247). Those wishing to remain anonymous can reach out to the LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477) or www.lacrimestoppers.org.
Staff writer Emily Holshouser contributed to this report.
Originally published at Nathaniel Percy, Brian Rokos, Josh Cain