Lillian Tweten on August 28, 2023
One minor was stabbed on Sunday after a flash mob of nearly 400 teenagers descended onto a mall in Emeryville, California, and looted a nearby Target before fleeing the scene, ABC7 News reported.
Teenagers used social media to coordinate the flash mob, which witnesses first noticed beginning to form at the Bay Street Mall by an AMC theater before the mob started charging at bystanders, according to ABC7. The mob dispersed from the mall around the time a gunshot rang out and part of the group moved to a nearby Target, where they stole property in front of shoppers.
“People were getting mad and everybody was stealing everything. Everything was on the floor,” Annalise Garcia, a witness who was in Target when the looting began, told ABC7.
The mob began to gather in groups of 50 to 100 at a time around 4:30 p.m., but violence did not break out for over an hour, according to a press release by the Emeryville Police Department. A caller reported a stabbing of a juvenile victim at 7 p.m. on the road next to the mall, and officers arrested one teenager from the mob of approximately 400, according to ABC7.
The Emeryville Police Department declined to comment further on the matter, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.
This mob is just one of several looting sprees that took place in California over the past few weeks, according to ABC7. One mob attacked a Macy’s in the Los Angeles area on Aug. 25, when a large group of masked thieves rushed into the store at 12:50 p.m., grabbed expensive merchandise and fled.
Another flash mob of between 30 and 50 people stole $100,000 worth of handbags from a Los Angeles Nordstrom on Aug. 12, Fox News reported.
California businesses have lost $16.4 billion to shoplifters since 2018, according to the Pacific Research Institute.
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