A former Philadelphia police commissioner predicted today that mass robbery crews would spread out across the country, given their success in a recent spate of California attacks on retailers.
Charles Ramsey, the ex-Philadelphia commissioner, said there’s “no question” that the trend will occur elsewhere.
“This is something now that I really unfortunately think is going to spread,” Ramsey told CNN on Thursday. “Right now it’s in California, but it will spread, there’s no question about it.”
California’s Bay Area and Los Angeles have been particularly hard hit by the flash mob attacks in the last week. The latest happened Wednesday, at a Los Angeles-area Nordstrom. The store at the Westfield Topanga & The Village shopping center in Canoga Park was hit at about 7 p.m.
A group of at least five men, one wearing an orange wig, entered the store and stole seven or eight purses before fleeing the scene and jumping into a newer model gray Ford Mustang that sped away from the scene, according to reports from ABC7 and KCAL9. They stole an estimated $20,000 in merchandise.
Earlier in the San Francisco area, a crowd estimated at 80 people attacked another outlet in Walnut Creek.
Newsweek reported that a Burberry and Yves Saint Laurent outlet were also robbed last Friday.
