Roaming packs of thieves ransacked another luxury retailer in Los Angeles on Black Friday before descending on Home Depot despite California Gov. Gavin Newsom's vow to crack down on the string of organized 'smash and grabs' plaguing the state.
The Bottega Veneta store in LA trendy Beverly Grove shopping district saw a large group enter the store at 5:21 p.m. and snatch pricey merchandise before one robber pepper-sprayed someone in the face, the LA Police Department reported.
At the Home Deport, in Lakewood, eight people made their way into the home improvement chain at 7:55 p.m. and stole sledgehammers, wrenches and hammers, threatened customers and then fled in 10 getaway cars.
The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department told CBS that the Home Deport robbery was especially worrying because the tools stolen could likely be used to rob more stores in the area.
Sheriff's deputies added that an entire section of sledge hammers was cleared out at the Home Depot, hammers similar to those that gangs of thieves have used to smash glass displays to nab jewelery and other high-end products, like iPhones.
Both the Home Depot and Bottega Veneta incidents are currently under investigation.
The Bottega Veneta store also issued a statement saying it would limit the number of customers allowed inside its store, NBC reported.
California Governor Gavin Newsom vowed on Monday to get tough with organized gangs of thieves who have ransacked and looted luxury retail stores in the San Francisco Bay Area
The robberies come as Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco - where the robberies have been most prominent - promised to end the 'smash and grabs' to avoid anymore damage to California stores before Black Friday.
The governor on Monday pledged to provide 'exponential level of support' in the next state budget to help cities combat retail theft rings.
Newsom said his office met with retailers last week who asked for more police patrols.
'You will see substantially more starting today, in and around areas that are highly trafficked and coming into the holiday season Black Friday in shopping malls,' he said.
On Wednesday, four young men, believed by police to be between the ages of 14 and 18, entered and grabbed $20,000 worth of merch from a Santa Rosa Apple store before fleeing in what authorities called a 'brazen daytime burglary' in broad daylight.
A detective from the Santa Rosa Police Department said they weren’t notified about the theft until 10 minutes after it occurred due to an Apple in-house protocol.
In the last week, thieves have made off with tens of thousands of dollars in luxury goods, amid soft misdemeanor theft laws in the Democrat-run state.
Controversial state law Proposition 47 bars prosecutors from charging suspected shoplifters accused of stealing less than $950 worth of merchandise with felonies.
'People see the ability to commit these 'smash-and-grab incidents' knowing that there is little consequence, especially if the thefts are kept below the threshold of a felony offense,' Lynda Buel, president of Ohio-based security consulting firm SRMC, told CNN. 'It's easy, it's fast, and the payback is good.'
Police official blame the law for the recent string of thefts, which include 20 robbers smashing their way into a Nordstrom at The Grove retail complex in LA on Monday night, making off with $5,000 worth of merchandise; and a CVS pharmacy in the city was struck just an hour later, where looters stole $8,000 from a cash register.
Nine people have been charged in connection with robberies last week at Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Bloomingdale's in the downtown area and in Union Square, a posh shopping district popular with tourists that was teeming with holiday shoppers.
Ben Dugan, president of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail, said: 'We're not talking about someone who needs money or needs food. These are people who go out and do this is for high profit, and for the thrill.'
Aside from the organized crime rings, the growing problem has been attributed to police officers' apparent reluctance to pursue retail criminals in the current political climate, prosecutors' failure to prioritize larceny and theft, and the decriminalization of low-level offenses in some jurisdictions.
Law enforcement also say that mercenary thieves are being recruited for up to $1,000 to steal the expensive goods which are then shipped across state lines and sold on the internet. The sophisticated method makes it harder for cops to track the criminals.
Best Buy CEO Corie Berry said this week that the situation has become so dire that her company is stepping up security measures to protect its staff and shoppers.
'This is traumatizing for our associates and is unacceptable,' Barry said on a call with analysts on Tuesday. 'We are doing everything we can to try to create [an] as safe as possible environment.'
Barry warned that employees could start quitting their jobs, rather than face the threat of hammer- and crowbar-wielding thieves terrorizing stores.
Police were able to pursue one of the getaway cars, which had fled onto the 110 Freeway
The robbery (not pictured) occurred at 7pm on the eve of Thanksgiving and left a security guard injured.
Last week, the San Francisco Bay Area saw a string of audacious 'smash-and-grab' robberies, including an incident involving a gaggle of hammer-wielding masked bandits who ransacked jewelry, sunglasses and clothing stores at the Southland Mall in the San Jose suburb of Hayward.
Dramatic footage released on Monday showed a group of about 40 to 50 robbers smashing glass display cases at Sam's Jewelers at the mall at around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. Staffers are seen screaming in terror as the heist unfolded.
Around the same time last Sunday evening, packs of thieves ransacked a sunglasses store and a Lululemon store in San Jose, stealing nearly $50,000 in merchandise, San Jose police Sgt. Christian Camarillo said Monday.
The group that targeted the Lululemon store included two women and two men, including one who had a 'visible gun in his waistband,' he added.
Last Saturday, police said as many as 80 suspects, some wearing ski masks and carrying crowbars, targeted a Nordstrom in the San Francisco suburb of Walnut Creek, assaulting employees and stealing merchandise before fleeing in waiting cars, police and witnesses said.
Two employees were assaulted and one was hit with pepper spray during what police called a 'clearly a planned event.' Walnut Creek police said they arrested two suspects and recovered a gun.
A day prior, roving bands of thieves brandishing hammers and crowbars hit a string of high-end retailers, including Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Bloomingdales, as well as a Walgreens pharmacy and several marijuana dispensaries, in the vicinity of Union Square in San Francisco, a high-end area popular with tourist that was crowded with holiday shoppers.
A group of about 40 to 50 teenage shoplifters made off with an unknown amount of jewelry and other items in Hayward, California, on Sunday. Experts and officials say national crime networks are behind many of the 'smash-and-grab ' operations
Los Angeles police say at least 20 people used sledgehammers to break the glass at a Nordstrom on Monday night and ransack its shelves before fleein
Videos of the chaotic scene posted on social media by witnesses showed police officers dragging one suspect from a waiting car and people running with merchandise in their arms or dragging suitcases.
The 'smash-and-grab' operations are usually organized by local people who recruit their crews and send them to steal specific merchandise requested by criminal organizations throughout the country, Dugan said.
'Crew bosses organize them, they'll give him the crowbars, and in some cases even rent them cars, or provide them with escape routes or a list of products to actually go out and steal. It looks very chaotic but it's actually very well organized,' Dugan said.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in September that large-scale store thefts orchestrated by organized crime rings are costing retailers across the US an estimated $45billion in annual losses.
Raoul has formed the Organized Retail Crime Task Force comprised of public and private entities to tackle the problem head on.
'These brazen, violent crimes are committed by sophisticated criminal organizations that are involved in
