How Are Retailers And Law Enforcement Reacting To The Recent Spate Of Smash And Grab Robberies?

So-called "smash and grab" style robberies — those in which a group of people enter a store, quickly take high-value items and leave before employees and security can react — are nothing new, but a recent spate of incidents in Southern California has put retailers large and small on high alert.

User Noel Escobar posted this video on X, formerly known as Twitter, earlier this month of a smash and grab robbery at Nordstrom at Westfield Topanga Mall.

"There are actually a lot of smash-and-grabs that are stopped by law enforcement, but unfortunately in L.A., we've seen a number of them happen in the last few weeks," said Rachel Michelin, president and CEO of the California Retailers Association, during an interview with LAist's daily news program, AirTalk.

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Michelin and the members of her organization aren't the only ones taking notice. Last week, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced the creation of a retail crimes task force that brings together local and federal law enforcement agencies, including the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, to help find solutions for highly-publicized shoplifting incidents in the area.

Recent incidents have occurred in a Nike store in East Los Angeles and the Yves Saint Laurent store at the Americana at Brand in Glendale.

Reaction from California retailers

The California Retailers Association's Michelin says although this isn't a sign of overall crime, this issue needs to be addressed for the sake of employees, customers and those who live around the area the shoplifting occurs. It's also an issue that is costly not just in the merchandise lost for these larger retailers, but the insurance that all these businesses pay to cover burglary costs.

The issue has also left retailers looking for solutions they can implement, ideally without incurring major additional costs. David Sellinger, a retail security expert and CEO of the crime prevention company Deep Sentinel, said while there's no silver bullet to this situation, retailers he's worked with are pulling out all the stops.

"The most extreme things we've started to see in the Northern California [and] Oakland area are smoke bombs and air horns," says Sellinger. "We are starting to get a lot of requests for those types of things... that in the event of a crime starting can stop it sooner than later."

What is local law enforcement doing?

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna says his agency has seen these flash mobs happen "on and off" for roughly a year and a half, and that it's been something city and federal law enforcement agencies have already been working together to address.

"We respond to these as quickly as we can and then there's a relentless investigation," said Sheriff Luna. "Where we follow up and continue to make sure that [perpetrators] are being held accountable for their actions."

He also noted that law enforcement and officials need to be more victim-centric in their approach to resolving these issues, and added that it's important for people to remember the complexities of these incidents given local statutes — that not all "smash-and-grabs" being "robberies" and vice-versa.

"If you get theft, even if it's thousands of dollars... that's going to be somebody who's probably going to be cited and released," said Sheriff Luna. "They're still getting cited, which means they're technically being arrested, but they're not going to go to jail until they see a judge later [down in the process]."

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