A 70 person mob of looters wreaked havoc on a California gas station convenience store, causing an estimated $100,000 in damage.
Mob of California looters ravage convenience store
The owner, Sam Mardaie, reported that Oakland police took about nine hours to respond to the chaos.
In the early hours of Friday morning, the flash mob struck the 76 Gas Station & Mini Market near the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.
Two employees were on duty when the unprecedented assault began, and the rampage lasted for about 40 minutes.
The safety-conscience business was only offering window service at the time, but the looters managed to break in through the front door.
“Shelves were ripped apart, all the grocery items were torn, stepped on, or vandalized,” Mardaie explained to KTVU.
He released video footage showing the looters ransacking his store, with surveillance capturing them going behind the counter to steal food and other products. Fortunately, none of the employees were harmed during the incident.
California looters destroy store, leave behind $100K in damage
The looters stole roughly $25,000 in cash from the store’s register and ATM, but they were unable to get away with the safe.
Mardaie and his family have only run the gas station for less then a year, having purchased the business in August 2023.
“This is the hardest thing you could ever go through…especially if you’ve put in sweat and tears day in and day out,” he said. “Building yourself for the last ten months and then you’re back to square one.”
“Things have to be fixed somehow,” Mardaie said about the insane amount of crime in the progressive central California city. “The citizens of Oakland need some form of security.”
He admitted to knowing that the area had a reputation for crime but noted, “I did not know it is this terrible.”
The Oakland Police Department told the news outlet that officers were busy dealing with a sideshow near the airport, involving more than 100 vehicles, when the looting occurred.
The department claimed officers responded to the flash mob looting about 90 minutes after the 911 call, which is seven-and-a-half-hours sooner then Mardaie said they showed up.
Whatever time they did actually respond to the incident, none of the looters had decided to stick around.
The police initially classified the crime as a Priority 2, but upgraded the situation to a Priority 1, once they viewed the security footage.
Mardaie told KRON4 that he tried to get in touch with OPD Police Chief Floyd Mitchell, but was told he would need to make an appointment to get an audience with him.
No arrests have been made in connection with the flash mob looting.
District 7 City Councilmember Treva Reid, the area’s representative,urged Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao to prioritize her district’s needs.
Elderly woman attacked in besieged Oakland
Nearby in crime-ridden Oakland, an elderly woman was viciously assaulted by a violent thug in broad daylight.
In a video of the crime, which has since gone viral, the victim can be seen walking down the street with a back and some luggage, when she is brutally punched in the head by a man and knocked to the ground.
After assaulting the elderly woman, the attacker then swings at another person who was walking in front of her, with a suitcase.
The attacker ripped off one of the elderly woman’s bags and the bystander’s suitcase before fleeing.
Four men who witnessed the crime chased after the perpetrator, but it’s unknown if they caught the man, or if he was arrested.
Both incidents serve as a direct contrast to the message about reduced crime that Mayor Thao was bragging about days earlier.
“Oakland is seeing positive results from new public safety strategies,” Thao claimed, adding that it is a “proven data-driven strategy that focuses law enforcement violence prevention and community resources on individuals in Oakland who are at highest risk to be involved in violence.”
She noted that since launching “operation ceasefire,” violent crime and overall crime have decreased significantly and sustainably.
Thao is currently looking at being recalled by Oakland after crime and the city’s budget has skyrocketed since she took office in 2023.
She’s also facing her own legal problems, after her home was raided by federal agents last month for reasons that have yet to be released to the public.
