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[Jeff P]

ABC News | November 23, 2021
LA luxury mall latest to be hit by smash-and-grab thieves:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...-mall-81351683

Los Angeles police say a group of thieves smashed windows at a department store at a luxury mall
By EUGENE GARCIA and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press
November 23, 2021, 2:50 PM

LOS ANGELES -- A group of thieves smashed windows at a department store at a luxury mall in Los Angeles, triggering a police pursuit just days after high-end stores throughout the San Francisco Bay Area were targeted.

The latest incident in a national trend of smash-and-grab crimes targeted a Nordstrom store at The Grove retail and entertainment complex. It came as the country's largest consumer electronics chain said that an increase in organized theft was taking a toll on its bottom line.

Workers covered a large broken window at the Nordstrom with black plywood on Tuesday morning as security guards and shoppers alike came in and out of the store.

The thieves struck around 10:40 p.m. Monday, said Officer Drake Madison, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. Officers pursued an SUV involved in the crime and the chase ended with three people taken into custody, he said. The number of people involved in the crime was not known, Madison said.

The electronics chain Best Buy on Tuesday cited organized theft as one of the reasons for a decline in gross profit margin in the third quarter.

“We are definitely seeing more and more particularly organized retail crime and incidents of shrink in our locations,” Best Buy CEO Corie Barry told analysts during a conference call Tuesday. “This is a real issue that hurts and scares real people.”

Barry told reporters during a separate call that the company is seeing organized theft increase across the country, but particularly in San Francisco.

-jp

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