Global Courant
More than twenty, mostly young people, arrested after raids on Apple, Lululemon and Foot Locker stores in a US city.
Groups of masked and masked teenagers broke into and swarmed stores in downtown Philadelphia, grabbing merchandise and fleeing on foot in flash mob-style raids, authorities and witnesses say.
An Apple Store was hit around 8pm local time on Tuesday and police chased fleeing teenagers who raided the store and recovered fallen iPhones and a “pile of iPads” in one spot, a police statement said.
More than 100 people who appeared to be teenagers looted a Lululemon store, NBC10 Philadelphia reported, citing a police officer.
A video posted to social media showed mostly masked youths in hoodies running out of Lululemon and police officers grabbing some and dragging them onto the sidewalk, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
No injuries were immediately reported, but CBS Philadelphia said a security guard was assaulted at a Foot Locker store.
Philly Apple store is looted pic.twitter.com/e39aKONTo0
— Dixie (@OSiiNT) September 27, 2023
The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper reported that more than 20 people, many of whom were young people, were arrested during the theft and vandalism Tuesday evening.
According to the Inquirer, the city’s acting police commissioner John Stanford said the youths involved appeared to have coordinated the raids using social media and that “a caravan of cars” moved around locations in the city and broke into stores.
The raids appeared to have been brought under control by police around midnight local time, the newspaper added.
Midnight Tuesday, Philadelphia police said they had arrested more than 20 people, many of whom were juveniles. The unrest stretched from Center City to North Philadelphia, with business corridors along Aramingo Avenue and Walnut Street targeted.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer (@PhillyInquirer) September 27, 2023
The flash mob-style looting followed an earlier peaceful protest in the city over a judge’s decision Tuesday to dismiss murder and other charges against a Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed a driver, Eddie Irizarry, through a car window.
Several police commanders said the looting was not related to previous demonstrations over the judge’s decision, CBS Philadelphia reported.
“This had nothing to do with the protests,” acting police chief Stanford said, according to the Inquirer.
“What we had tonight was a bunch of criminal opportunists taking advantage of a situation and trying to destroy our city,” he said.
The store raids took place on the same day that US budget retailer Target announced it would close nine stores in four states, including one in New York’s East Harlem neighborhood, and three in the San Francisco Bay Area. the safety of its employees and customers.
