About 80 people, some wearing ski masks and wielding crowbars, ransacked an upscale Department store in the San Francisco Bay Area Saturday night, attacking employees and stealing merchandise before fleeing the crime scene in waiting cars, police and witnesses said Saturday, AP reported.
The massive theft at the Nordstrom store shocked shoppers inside and outside the mall, local police said in a statement Sunday. Three people were arrested in the incident, but most escaped. Two employees were attacked in the mall, one with pepper spray, in what police described as an "apparently planned incident."
NBC Bay Area correspondent Jody Hernandez said on Twitter that she saw the gang break into the mall, which is about 32 kilometers northeast of San Francisco. "About 25 cars blocked the street, [bandits] broke into Nordstrom, took the goods, got in the car and sped away," she tweeted.
Cellphone video from the scene showed masked men pouring out of the store, grabbing bags and boxes, jumping into cars and fleeing the scene, the report said.
Brett Barrett, manager of a nearby restaurant, saw the mayhem and locked the door. "We could see 50 to 80 people with ski masks, crowbars and a bunch of weapons," Mr Barrett said.
Local police say they recovered a gun from one of the arrested suspects.
The incident came a day after a large crowd broke into several high-end stores in San Francisco's Union Square, smashing Windows and snatching merchandise before fleeing in cars, police said. Stores of Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana are thought to have been targeted in Friday night's heist.