On Monday, a “flash mob” of looters were caught on video ransacking a 7-Eleven and making off with several items.
LAPD released a series of videos that showed numerous individuals, many of whom did not bother to cover their faces, grabbing different things as they stormed the chain store in the Harbor Gateway neighborhood of Los Angeles.
One video showed the unruly group throwing items toward another group of individuals on the other side of the counter, which appeared to have been left vacant by 7-Eleven staff.
According to authorities, items like lottery tickets, cigarettes, snacks, and beverages were all stolen from the store, which had also been trashed.
Before the police arrived, the crowd of suspects immediately fled the scene after leaving the store.
Police said the robberies occurred during a “street takeover” in which the drivers blocked a city intersection from all directions to form a “pit.”
According to authorities, onlookers stopped to watch drivers doing “doughnuts.”
“The term ‘flash mob’ was first used to describe a large public gathering at which people perform an unusual or seemingly random act and then disperse, typically organized by means of the internet or social media,” said the LAPD.
“In the latest cases, flash mobs’ have turned from fun spontaneous events to opportunistic criminal occurrences.”
