Police are searching for more than a dozen suspects who ransacked a Nike Store in Los Angeles, stealing roughly $12,000 in merchandise.
Video of the incident shows masked and hooded people running through the store on Sunday, stuffing boxes of shoes into trash bags and ripping clothes off the rack before fleeing.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, on Sunday at around 5:50 p.m., a total of 17 suspects in five vehicles pulled up to the shopping center on the 9800 block of South Alameda Street.
“The suspects, whose faces were concealed by medical masks or other material, ran into a retail store with trash bags in hand,” police said in a statement. “They placed clothing and boxes of shoes in the trash bags and fled from the location without paying for the merchandise.”
The LAPD described the suspects as four Black females and 13 Black males, ranging in age between 15 to 20 years old. They identified the suspects’ vehicles as a tan Infiniti four-door, a gray KIA SUV, a white Honda four-door and a black Audi.
“This flash mob used their size in numbers to intimidate and instill fear onto the store employees to prevent them from taking the merchandise,” police said.
The video shows the suspects tearing through the store with blue trash bags. A child can be heard crying as they rush past. One of the suspects was recorded wearing a distinctive hooded sweatshirt with a logo of a bonsai tree and the words, “Ritual of the Spirit.”
“They began to pilfer through the store, placed shoe boxes and clothing apparel into the trash bags, and ran out of the store without paying for the merchandise,” police said.
