Fox News Flash top headlines for November 22
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Mobs of thieves ransacked at least two dozen San Francisco area businesses over the weekend, as smash and grab incidents rage in the Bay Area.
"At least two dozen businesses were impacted," Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told CBS SF. "Roving caravans of vehicles, targeting cannabis operations, retail shops, pharmacies, throughout the city of Oakland."
The mobs of thieves hit a handful of pharmacies and marijuana dispensaries in Oakland, including the Wellspring pharmacy that released surveillance video of the scene to the media. Police added that the mobs in Oakland fired 175 shots during the incidents, forcing officers to pull back to safe locations, The Mercury News reported.
BACK-TO-BACK FLASH MOB LOOTINGS IN SAN FRANCISCO AREA ALARMING EXPERTS
A local Oakland man battling cancer also tried to visit a Walgreens on Sunday only to find it closed after a robbery.
"I’ve got cancer," David Massey said. "So I’m trying to get certain medications filled and they tell you to go to another Walgreens."
CALIFORNIA NORDSTROM RANSACKED BY 80 LOOTERS IN SKI MASKS WITH CROWBARS AND WEAPONS: WITNESS
"This is the third time that I know of that they have been broken into," he added. "It hurts us all. Especially the little guy that really needs it."
The area kicked off the weekend of crime with a swarm of people descending on a Louis Vuitton in San Francisco, clearing out the store of its high-end merchandise. That same night, "hundreds" of vehicles targeted marijuana dispensaries in Oakland, Armstrong told The Mercury News.
On Saturday, about 80 people wearing ski masks and armed with crowbars stormed a Nordstrom location in nearby Walnut Creek. They then rushed from the store to their vehicles with stolen merchandise. Three people have so far been arrested in connection to that incident.
San Francisco police said that nearly 12 stores in that city alone were attacked at the same time by a mob of at least 80 people over the weekend.
LOUIS VUITTON STORE IN SF’S UNION SQUARE ‘EMPTIED OUT’ BY THIEVES; 8 ARRESTED: REPORT
The crimes also extended to San Jose, about 50 miles from San Francisco, where at least four people stole $40,000 from a Lululemon in an incident described by police as "organized robbery."
"People need to be alert," San Jose police Sgt. Christian Camarillo told The Mercury News. "We’re coming into the busy holiday shopping season. We can’t be everywhere at the same time. We do need citizens’ help; when they see suspicious activity occurring, please let us know, especially at the malls."
Walnut Creek Police Chief Jamie Knox has meanwhile reached out to the FBI, the California Highway Patrol and the U.S. Marshals Service in preparation for any potential similar incidents.
"No city can be prepared for one day, with no notice, 80 people committing an organized theft within one minute," Walnut Creek mayor Kevin Wilk said of the Nordstrom robbery.
The incidents are also alarming local security experts, who are pointing to California’s laws that are intended to reduce costs of incarceration as to why there is an increase in such crimes. Shoplifting charges regarding the theft of $950 or less were lowered from felonies to misdemeanors under Proposition 47 in 2014. Stores also often have no-chase policies of shoplifters.
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"I think what happens now is there's no accountability for it anymore, and the liability for the stores if they try to apprehend these guys. They just stand by and watch," Steve Reed, a retired police officer and the former head of security at Arden Fair Mall, told ABC 10 this week.
