By the Daily Post staff
Between 30 and 40 people tried to break into the high-end consignment store TheRealReal at 379 University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto last night, just before midnight.
A security guard was in his car nearby when he saw the mob descend upon the store. He immediately called 911. The would-be robbers tried to break into the store by slamming some sort of solid object against the windows. A window shattered but didn’t give way.
When police arrived at 11:20 p.m., the mob ran to their cars and sped out of town.
Palo Alto and Menlo Park police stopped two cars in Menlo Park and made two arrests, Palo Alto police Lt. Brian Philip said.
Earlier Sunday evening, the robbers hit TheRealReal store in Marin County in Larkspur, and then the caravan drove to Palo Alto.
Inside the car Palo Alto police stopped were items from the Marin County store with their price tags still on.
The store sells women’s clothing, shoes and expensive handbags on behalf of people who want to sell those items.
On June 21, a crew of seven robbers took $50,000 in handbags from the store. That prompted management to hire security guards who have been highly visible to passers-by.
There have been a number of similar incidents in the Bay Area in the past few days.
Early Thursday morning, three thieves broke into the De Novo Fine Contemporary Jewelry at 250 University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto and stole more than $50,000 worth of silver and gold jewelry from the display cases, police said.
Cameras captured two people wearing dark clothes, hooded sweatshirts and Covid masks breaking into three display cases and grabbing items for just over a minute, while a third person waited in a getaway car. No arrests have been made in the Palo Alto robbery.
On Friday night, well-organized thieves rammed vehicles into storefronts to break glass doors and windows at Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry, and Dolce & Gabbana in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping district on Friday, according to police. Several people were arrested.
On Saturday, about 80 people, some wearing ski masks and wielding crowbars, ransacked the Nordstrom at the Broadway Plaza outdoor mall in Walnut Creek. Two employees were assaulted and one was hit with pepper spray during what police called “clearly a planned event.”
Correction: An earlier version said Menlo Park police stopped a car fleeing from the scene. Actually, Menlo Park and Palo Alto police stopped a car and made two arrests.
I think the job of a reporter is to factually report what happened without putting their opinion in the story. I think this story meetis that standard. The opinions belong on the editorial page.
How about: Repub Policies Causing Massive Wealth Inequality and Social Unrest Leads to Flurry of Organized Petty Crime?
OMG. Could a one sided, closed-minded comment be so infantile. “Capiche”, give me a break.
FJB: What do you call the storming of our nation’s capital by domestic terrorists? Was that caused by lax liberal policy? Or is the lax liberal policy stonewalling the investigation into that same domestic terrorist attack that left several dead? Your Fox News like expectations that a news source point the finger at liberals is to be honest kind of gross. No matter who is governing, liberal policy seems a convenient scapegoat by people like you to blame anything on.
Clearly they were not looting on Jan 6 2021!
Is all planned events! They are backed by these liberal nut cases, nobody ever goes to jail, they are all in on it, even the stores know it would happen!
welcome to the new normal
This is organized crime, no doubt. Cops need to find the ringleader.
Absolutely correct. The bigger problem is that sores has gotten nearly 30 of these moron DAs into cities all over the country in the last 3-4 years. This country is in huge trouble just because of him
Are these thieves the same people once demanding defund police department?
Of course, so that they can take valuables more conveniently from stores and private property.
Have we learned enough lessons? We need to stand up and make a change.
i don’t think we know anything about the thieves yet. You’re making a lot of assumptions.
This is merely the latest in a years long crime spree. We are past the point of making assumptions and into the territory if hard fact. Perhaps not this individual incident in all aspects, but the overall trend is fairly obvious.
Yes we know who they are! It isn’t politically correct to mention their names
Instead of ramming vehicles and shattering glass in middle of the night, I don’t understand why they don’t all just walk into a bank in bank robber masks where it’s perfectly legal to do so without resistance or anyone batting an eye like any other masked bank customer.
Could it be that having immense wealth inequality in the bay area is leading to a huge rise in property crime? And could most of that wealth inequality stem from a huge lack of housing? Most middle class folks have left town by now so it’s down to the haves vs the have nots. Obviously these crimes should be prosecuted but let’s also look at the root cause.
Being poor does not mean you are barbaric and is no excuse. This idea that we must forgive crime because some have a lot more than others is crazy. The housing shortage is because the Democrats who control California politics didn’t build enough lower income housing starting way back when the boom started. They also didn’t plan the roads, rail, power grid, and water very well. But that’s a longer conversation.
The root cause – as everyone should know by now – is that SOME people voted in people with activist agendas and not much respect for the quality of life in California and those people confuse their fantasies with their responsibilities as public servants. Whether it’s sanctuary cities and opening up the border or emptying the prisons or not prosecuting crime, or letting teachers brainwash their kids, Californians are getting what they voted for. Not punishing crime = more crime regardless of what your college professor might have told you about woke. We pretend that the crimes the groups we are not allowed to speak about don’t exist or worse that there is some reasonable excuse for their barbarism. Evil wins when good people do nothing.
If you don’t have enough money to live in the Bay Area.. move!
I did ! I couldn’t afford to live there anymore.soooo that gives me Card Blanche to rob people ??? Give me a break!
This IS due to the lotting and robbing that went on all the George Floyd summer and the people who dud nit go to jail!
Thus is insane!!!!!
Will DA Jeff Rosen charge and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law or let these criminals essentially walk free like Chesa Boudin in SF? Do we have a DA prosecutor committed to public safety or a criminal advocate enabler?
My conspiracy theory is that the theft mobs are actually police, creating panic for which they’ll be rewarded with bigger budgets and more draconian tactics. And it appears to be working, as evidenced by the Governor’s recent announcement.
Jeff Rosen and Gavin Newsom were supporters of Prop. 47, the law that springs violent criminals out of prison. Source: https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_47_(2014),_supporters
Other supporters of Prop 47 were:
B. Wayne Hughes Jr., businessman and philanthropist
Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix
Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
Michael Moore, filmmaker and activist
Brad Pitt
Cameron Diaz
Olivia Wilde
Andrian Grenier
Viola Davis
Tim Robbins
Kimora Lee Simmons
Demi Moore
Russell Simmons
Russell Brand
Kerry Washington
Wilmer Valderrama
Edward Norton
Margaret Cho
Jesse Williams
Robin Wright
Terry Crews
Judd Apatow
Susan Sarandon
Marlon Wayans
Alyssa Milano
Larry David
Rosario Dawson
Omar Epps
Ellen Pompeo
Kevin Hart
Alicia Silverstone
Rachel Roy
Sanaa Lathan
Danny Trejo
Jeffery Wright
Big Boy
Jasiri X
Cedric the Entertainer
Dream Hampton
Anthony Anderson
Charlie Murphy
Selita Ebanks
John Singleton
Jaime Chung
La La Anthony
Arsenio Hall
Debbie Allen
Ernesto Yerena
Terrence Jenkins
Deray Davis
Annalynne McCord
Damien Wayans
Mark Gonzalez
Tika Sumpter
Troy Carter
Sydney Tamia Potier
Josefa Salinas
Timothy Watters
Natalie Patterson
Patrick Martinez
Kenny Hamilton
Affion Crockett
Sanaa Lathan
Danny Trejo
Jeffery Wright
Big Boy
Jasiri X
Cedric the Entertainer
Dream Hampton
Anthony Anderson
Charlie Murphy
Selita Ebanks
John Singleton
Jaime Chung
La La Anthony
Arsenio Hall
Debbie Allen
Ernesto Yerena
Terrence Jenkins
Deray Davis
Annalynne McCord
Damien Wayans
Mark Gonzalez
Tika Sumpter
Troy Carter
Sydney Tamia Potier
Josefa Salinas
Timothy Watters
Natalie Patterson
Patrick Martinez
Kenny Hamilton
Affion Crockett
Jay Z[10]
John Legend[9]
Aloe Blacc
Harry Belafonte
Sean “Diddy” Combs
Wayne Kramer
Tyrese Gibson
Maya Jupiter
Mya
Mecca
Mike de la Rocha
Michelle Williams
Harper Simon
Feli Fel
Quetzal
The Last Internationale
Las Cafeteras
Too many of the good people of California supported it – they were wrong. In fairness to the voters they probably didn’t think Prop 47 would create such a mess. Now the we have the law, and bad DA’s, and unfortunately too many other bad law and not order policies in California, it’s time to return the crooks to jail and the addicts to treatment.
DA Jeff Rosen holds a news conference to say he’s going to crack down on these thieves and he supported Prop 47, which launched this crime wave? He needs to be thrown out of office.
Everyone in the comments is suddenly a public policy expert….just remember that we’re going 2 years into a pandemic, and the problems we been having in the hood for decades exacerbated by COVID were bound to ripple outward. NIMBY folks — our backyard is your backyard now <3 y’all keep pinning this on Boudin and it shows how much time the work-from-home population has to cling on the news bc nothing has changed in office aside from maybe him charging cops which Gascon never had the balls to do. Look at the actual numbers, people…