Posted on 08/19/2011 5:56:58 AM PDT by markomalley
For the second time in a week, a flash mob robbed a convenience store in our area. Could it be a new trend in the Washington region?
In the latest incident, 10 women stormed the Shop Express convenience store along Benning Road in northeast Washington at about 3:15 a.m. Thursday.
They loaded up on food, drinks and snacks at different parts of the store.
Some of the women were carrying bags to hold some of the items. Then they all rushed out of the store at the same time without paying.
Employees said that each of the women stole about $60 worth of merchandise.
"Stealing is a very normal thing at convenience stores," one employee said. "It happens every day -- morning, evening, night. But such kind of thing I have never seen before."
Store employees said this was the third such incident at the store in the past couple of weeks, and that if the trend continues, the 24-hour store will have to close at night.
This store is not alone in its flash mob troubles. Last Saturday, a flash mob took over a 7-Eleven in Germantown.
Investigators in Montgomery County said they know who some of the suspects are, but they are hoping people will recognize the others and call police.
Hmmmmm...sounds like the natives are once again encroaching, evolving, creating another 'food desert'.
Flash Robs
When I said that they would have to do better than that to compete in D.C. I was referring to competing with the real crooks in D.C. That is, those in government. It was a joke.
Good point. The flash mob in Congress now loots over a trillion a year from the entire country!
I understood you and it was funny.
Just wait until Obama loses...
Ken & Evelyn bought a 7-11 franchise in our neighborhood when I was still in jr high school. The fact that I still recall their names all these years later is a testament to the impression that they made on me.
I remember going over to the store after school one day to find them closed. It turned out that several of the neighborhood kids (all of which I knew and a couple of which I ran with) had concocted a plan to rob his store in a method eerily similar to these flash mobs.
They chose a time when Evelyn would be alone in the store and then descended in mass, stealing beer and cigarettes. I don’t know what the haul was, but when the store opened there were a couple of changes. Ken now had a Remington Express shotgun and we kids were no longer welcome.
A classic case of a few rotten apples spoiling it for all of us. Although Ken eventually allowed some of us back into his store I don’t think that he ever regained his faith in any of us.
The more things change...
SEE TAGLINE
“Lock em inside when a group like that comes in”
Yes, they are going to HAVE to start doing that.
7-11s and other 24 hour joints better find their keys and start some door locking practice.
I’ve heard they’ve had problems with that when, for whatever reason they’ve needed to lock up. I mean blackouts, etc. not things like this.
Rubber bullets and/or sawed off shotguns.
Simple solution.
“Flash Robs”
Very, very good. It’s going to catch on!
These flash robberies may also be part of enterprising protection rackets.
I have heard of a store that was frequently being robbed putting in a mini-cell phone tower inside the store. Since most of these youts have cell phones, and dont think to live their phones in the car, it was easy for the police to match the cell phone numbers and pick them up. Videos on exits allowed for easy identification in court.
Cashier pushes a button. An electric screen drops down in front of all exits; a cage of sorts. No one leaves, at least confortably, until authorities arrive.
That's already happened in many of the nastier parts of the inner city. Food costs are high because only small shops can operate there, and with high security. The result, that ghetto residents have to travel to find a supermarket, and that their shopping choices are reduced, has been noticed and decried as racism.
The problem the rest of society faces now is that these roving gangs of feral youth no longer just crap where they eat. They do it everywhere.
I can’t imagine the authorities will want to clog up the courts with such seemingly penny-ante stuff.
It will soon become part of the “new normal”.
It’s going to take more than just calling the cops to stop this sort of thing.
It's not stealing until they leave the store. The authorities would promptly charge the store owners with unlawful imprisonment and/or kidnapping.
LeRoy, Bubba and Jamal posing in Mama’s kitchen. LOL!!!
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