Gas station owner speaks out after flash mob of teens ransacks convenience store in Lincoln Heights
LINCOLN HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The owner of a Lincoln Heights gas station spoke out in an interview after chaotic surveillance video captured a flash mob of teenagers ransacking the station's convenience store.
The robbery occurred late Thursday afternoon at the Chevron gas station located at 1101 North Mission Road, just east of the 5 Freeway.
In an interview with ABC7, owner Jeremy Salib said about two-dozen high schoolers took armloads of merchandise including candy, chips and beer during the "premeditated, organized" theft.
"Of course, they're gathering -- so many of them -- that I can't stop just one kid, right? It's 24, 25 kids, so it leaves me kind of helpless -- especially with LAPD saying they can't do anything about it," Salib said.
"It makes me angry, you know? It makes me think erratically, which I don't want to do," he added.
Anaheim jewelry store owner fires warning shot to scare off mob of would-be robbers
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers responded to a holdup alarm that was later downgraded to a theft case. The suspects were gone upon the arrival of the officers, who filed a police report about the incident, an LAPD spokesperson said.
Salib said his reaction to the theft was "just disbelief. Honestly, I was of course concerned for my cashier, to make sure she was OK. She was -- that room is bulletproof, so she stayed inside."
The gas station owner said he called the LAPD but "they said there was nothing they could do about it -- that it's considered shoplifting and shoplifting isn't something they can really go after. So, that's that."
