The Shocking Rise in Flash Mob Convenience Store Looting

Red State ^ | 05/09/2026 | Ward Clark

[SeekAndFind]

The primary purpose of government is to protect the liberty and property of the citizens. We have seen, for some time and in almost every major American city, how municipal governments from Boston to Los Angeles have utterly failed in this primary role. In Los Angeles in particular, the despicable phenomenon of "flash mobs," organized (presumably) online, strikes with the speed of summer lightning and loot convenience stores, threatening the owners and employees, and stealing everything but the shelving and light fixtures - leaving chaos in their wake.

On X, a prominent Californian, Justine Bateman, took to her X account to remind us of an incident from 2025, which resulted in no arrests or prosecutions: Just a ruined store.

.@MayorOfLA @nithyavraman @spencerpratt @NathanHochmanDA This is embarrassing and makes those currently in office look like children.
Time for you to finally let the @LAPDHQ enforce laws again or you will have even more businesses and residents leave LA. This is one of the reasons people here resent the high taxes: we get very little in exchange. This is why our insurance rates are so high: to cover all the losses in a free-wheeling crime city.

https://t.co/SfKxiiSoSR— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) May 9, 2026

Ms. Bateman wrote:

.@MayorOfLA @nithyavraman @spencerpratt @NathanHochmanDA This is embarrassing and makes those currently in office look like children. Time for you to finally let the @LAPDHQ enforce laws again or you will have even more businesses and residents leave LA. This is one of the reasons people here resent the high taxes: we get very little in exchange. This is why our insurance rates are so high: to cover all the losses in a free-wheeling crime city.

She's not wrong. This incident, as noted, happened last summer, in Los Angeles.

In an interview with ABC7, owner Jeremy Salib said about two-dozen high schoolers took armloads of merchandise including candy, chips and beer during the "premeditated, organized" theft.

"Of course, they're gathering -- so many of them -- that I can't stop just one kid, right? It's 24, 25 kids, so it leaves me kind of helpless -- especially with LAPD saying they can't do anything about it," Salib said.

This is just one incident of several. Another smash-and-grab flash mob looted another Los Angeles convenience store in December 2025.

A flash mob of armed teens brazenly invaded a Los Angeles 7-Eleven and swiped anything they could get their hands on as one of the suspects bragged that surveillance cameras couldn’t catch his face.

The teens arrived on their bicycles and stormed the downtown convenience store on Saturday, breaking down the door and tossing food to others gathered in the lot, according to wild footage.

And, last March, in Sacramento.

A swarm of teens turned a Sacramento gas station convenience store into a scene of chaos in a matter of moments, as surveillance video shows merchandise flying and a lone employee left to fend for himself.

The incident happened March 19 at a Chevron station along Folsom Boulevard, where a large group of juveniles flooded the store and began vandalizing the business, according to the Sacramento Police Department.

Police told Fox News Digital officers received a call that night about 25 to 30 juveniles involved in the disturbance at the location in the 8000 block of Folsom Boulevard. At the time, the caller indicated they did not expect to be contacted by officers.

The common thread? Little or no police response.

---

Read More: Teens Swarming Chicago Streets in Viral Street Takeovers

NYC City Council's Unbelievable Plan to Tackle Self-Checkout Retail Theft - Punish Business Owners?

---

The municipal governments of Los Angeles and Sacramento had one job. Just one job. Protect the liberty and property of the people. They have failed.

Why have they failed? By preventing an effective police response. Why does that matter? Because the criminals know they can commit these acts with impunity. Why is that wrong? Because the criminal element in every society should live in fear. Would-be looters should live in a constant state of terror, terror of discovery, of capture, of confrontation. In our major cities today, the opposite is true – in some neighborhoods, criminal gangs have all but taken over. 

What's more, it is in precisely these locations that the citizenry had been largely deprived of their right of self-defense.

If you live in California, especially if you live in Los Angeles, or in or near any major city, for that matter, remember this in November, when you go to vote.

---

TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: anarchotyranny; computers; computersinternet; crime; culture; dystopia; flashmob; generationlockdown; internet; lockdowngeneration; looting; socialmedia; theft

[ConservativeMind]

I’d like to see an article on the shocking rise of burglars being shot, with this.

[ansel12]

This has been going on for many, many years.

[SeekAndFind]

Los Angeles 'flash mob' of looters caught on video ransacking 7-Eleven. Police are asking the public for any help in identifying the suspects caught on video during the robbery.

[Steve_Seattle1]

These smelly little animals have been taught that it’s ok to do this by their teachers, parents, the Democrat Party, and the MSM.

[LegendHasIt]

Nothing shocking about it to anyone who has even the slightest ability for logic and has been paying attention.

[Nateman]

There is a video of a flash mob at a Jewelry store. They try and break down the doors but the owner fires a few shots and *poof!* they are gone!

[Quickgun]

Shotguns can stop this behavior...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Have a recording of a pistol in rapid fire mode queued up on the PA and play it at the opportune moment.

[PROCON]

Police are asking the public for any help in identifying the suspects caught on video during the robbery.

[Organic Panic]

Flash mob = blacks

Shoot a couple of them and this will stop. Roof top Koreans knew how to deal with them.

[Organic Panic]

That for never gets old.

One of the most bizarre tv shows made.

[Salamander]

I see a pattern here.

[vpintheak]

Businesses need to respond by shutting down all these places in the rat-run hellholes. Let them enjoy their “deserts”.

[Salvavida]

Hit them with RICO convictions and see how having 20 years shaved off their lives settles the issue.

[PghBaldy]

Related, and a hobby of young yutes, are fights & shootings in malls, and fairs and festivals. Also “random” attacks near subways and on city sidewalks. Violence anywhere and everywhere blacks gather.

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

No Worries!

All of the democRAT/DemoKKKrat run cities will just create government convenience stores. They will stock them once a month, and announce themselves ready to be looted. After all the stuff is stolen, they will close down until the next month’s deliveries. Then they will stock up the store for the next round looting.

Rinse and repeat.

Any government run convenience store found to be keeping any supplies in the back will be charged with hoarding the people’s product. All food belongs to the people, on a first-loot basis. Anyone who complains that the looting is not equitable will be labeled racist.

[Dilbert San Diego]

It’s amazing that they will call them teens or young people.

But other characteristics of these groups of people cannot be discussed.

Can they be tracked through cell phone movements? I’m not familiar enough with that possibility, but I hear about how you can ping a cellphone and know where someone is. Just thinking that’s one area of police work that might help catch these guys. Since so many people have cell phones nowadays.

[The Duke]

... convictions that put them on a “Cool Hand Luke” style chain gang.

[Nervous Tick]

Just once, I’d like to see a trap wherein a wall o’shotguns opens up on these vermin and takes out every damn one of them.

Just once.

It would do wonders to tamp down this lawlessness.