Smash-and-grab thieves slam pickup truck into Chatsworth smoke shop in crash caught on video
CHATSWORTH, Calif. (KABC) -- Thieves slammed a pickup truck into a Chatsworth smoke shop early Thursday before ransacking the store, dramatic surveillance video showed.
The footage shows a white truck backing into the front Smoke City about 1:30 a.m. at 21700 Devonshire Street, near Owensmouth Avenue, mangling a metal security gate and shattering the floor-to-ceiling window.
About a dozen suspects -- wearing hooded sweatshirts, beanies and face masks -- are then seen looting the small business. A camera mounted outside the building recorded the intruders as the later ran out and got into another vehicle, an SUV.
No one was in custody in connection with the crime, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The owner of the smoke shop, George Touma, expressed anger and frustration in an interview with ABC7.
Thieves ram car into South LA sneaker store and steal merchandise - again
Asked if Thursday's break-in was the first at the store, he said: "No, actually we just got broken into this same shop about 3 weeks ago. They basically broke the front door and they got in. But today it was a much bigger break-in than before."
He said a safe, cigarettes, vape devices and cash were stolen in the previous burglary. The total value of the merchandise taken Thursday was unclear.
"When they catch these criminals they let them go," Touma said. "It's as if this state -- this beautiful state -- is siding with the criminals instead of siding with the innocent people who are working so hard to make it at the end of the day.
"And it's just literally getting out of control. It's getting to the point where it's becoming like a boiling point."
Meanwhile, a similar break-in and burglary occurred overnight at a cannabis dispensary in North Hollywood. The vehicle that slammed into that business resembled the white SUV that was used as the getaway car in the Smoke City break-in, but whether the same robbers were involved was unclear.
LAPD officers responded about 3:30 a.m. to the burglary while it was in progress at the Swish dispensary at 10701 Burbank Boulevard, two blocks west of Cahuenga Boulevard.
Five suspects fled in a different vehicle and were last seen headed westbound on Burbank Boulevard, police said. The white SUV remained at the scene.
