It was the moment that armed robbers in California walked up to a Californian restaurant, and stole a woman’s wristwatch at gunpoint.
The shocking footage is from a Hot Wings Café on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, and shows a young couple tucking into a meal at a small table when a pair of masked men descend on them.
The one of them raises his pistol and walks up to the table. Meanwhile, the other man circles around behind the couple, leaning over the victim, seeming to whisper to him.
His watch immediately falls off and he hands it to the armarmed man. Before his female companion can follow his lead, he quickly takes his watch.
It lasted only 10 seconds, and the robbery was done with complete calm.
According to LAPD, the incident occurred on October 16, according to LAPD. It was discovered in light of the Black Friday lootings last week, during which individuals and businesses across the state were robbed.
Son of restaurant owner said bandits had been spotted in the area within fifteen seconds.
‘Your typical Rolex bandit situation… We’ve never seen such heightened levels of crime,’ he said.
“We need more LAPD and city officials to be present in the region,” he stated. He said that safety is important for everyone in the area, including our patrons.
The security camera footage, which has been circulated on social media, shows a young couple dining in a Hot Wings Café in Los Angeles
Right: A couple of masked men in hoods enter the restaurant. They then proceed to approach the table.
A man is holding a firearm while another leans over the male victim and whispers something to his ear. The couple then quickly take their watches off the victim and give them to the robbers.
Meanwhile, cities across the state of California faced as torrent of violent robberies during the week of Black Friday despite California Gov. Gavin Newsom has pledged to clamp down on the organized “smash-and-grabs” that plague California.
Newsom was long criticised for creating an environment where’minor crimes’ such as thefts and robberies were reduced to misdemeanors.
Californians enacted a law that bars prosecutors from charging shoplifters with felonies for stealing merchandise worth less than $950.
Newsom stated that his budget plans for next fiscal year will “substantially” increase city funding to combat organized retail crime. Last week, Newsom promised to “step up” police patrols in an effort to stop looters on Black Friday.
Newsom stated that he needed to “break up these criminal rings” and make an example of them. This cannot continue.
Republicans however were angry at Newsom for adopting soft policies, which they claimed set the conditions for the burglaries that he had promised to stop.
California Governor Gavin Newsom pledged Monday that he would get tough on organized thieves who ransacked luxury stores throughout the state.
Roaming packs of thieves ransacked several luxury retailers in Los Angeles’ Beverly Grove shopping district on Black Friday in which passers-by were pepper sprayed by the robbers according to LAPD, before they descending on a Home Depot where they stole sledgehammers and wrenches before driving away.
CBS reported that Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department was particularly concerned by the Home Depot robbery because of the possibility that tools taken could be used in other stores.
According to Sheriff’s officers, an entire section of sledgehammers were removed at Home Depot. These hammers are similar to the ones that gangs use to smash display glass for jewelry to get iPhones and high-end items like iPhones.
Officials in California have claimed that the string of crime was caused by California’s inflexible attitude towards thefts and robberies. On Monday, 20 robbers broke into Nordstrom at The Grove in Los Angeles. They stole $5,000 in merchandise. Just an hour later they struck a CVS pharmacy. The looters took $8,000 from the cash register.
Other than organized crime groups, police officers seem reluctant to pursue retail criminals due to current political climate. Prosecutors fail to prioritise theft/larceny in certain jurisdictions.
Three people were killed in Oakland over the weekend. One of them was a former police officer working as security for a TV crew covering a scene from a smash-and-grab.
Kevin Nishita is a grandfather of three and a father of two. He was assigned to protect the KRON4 crew as they were reporting from California’s latest smash-and grab raid on Wednesday. A robber pounced on their camera equipment.
Nishita was a former officer in police and confronted the 12 masked criminals who were trying to protect reporters. The thief then shot Nishita in the lower abdomen. He was shot in the lower abdomen. He was taken to Highland Hospital for surgery. However, he died Saturday morning.
KRON4, Nexstar Media Inc. is its parent company. Nishita’s employer Star Protection Agency has issued a $32,500 reward to anyone with information about the suspects.
KRON4 Vice President Jim Rose released a statement saying that they were devastated by Kevin Nishita’s death. “This senseless death is caused by yet another criminal act in Bay Area.”
Over the weekend, three Oakland victims were killed: Kevin Nishita, a father-of-2 and grandfather of-3 Nishita. While protecting a television crew that was reporting on a smash-and grab raid, he was fatally shot.