On Thursday, August 22nd, a group of thieves drove a pickup truck, using it as a battering ram, to forcibly break into a tobacco shop located in Chatsworth, according to Los Angeles Police Department official Drake Madison. The daring crime took place at 1:30 in the early hours of Thursday at the 21700 block of Devonshire Street.
Surveillance footage showed the truck ramming through the metal security gate, following which several men wearing hoodies rushed into the store, quickly looting merchandise before driving away in a white SUV parked outside the store, leaving the truck behind.
In a separate incident reported by Fox11, an attempted break-in occurred at a tobacco shop in North Hollywood earlier. The shop, located near the intersection of Burbank Blvd and Cartwright Ave, was targeted by thieves driving an allegedly stolen SUV, but they failed to succeed and ultimately fled the scene abandoning the vehicle.
Madison mentioned that the stolen vehicles have been impounded by the authorities, but it remains unclear what the thieves managed to take and whether the attacks on the two shops were orchestrated by the same group of thieves.
The owner of Smoke City told ABC7 that the shop was also invaded three weeks ago, during which thieves took away approximately $30,000 in cash and merchandise. The owner, who owns multiple stores, revealed that he is enhancing security measures by installing double lock metal gates, bulletproof glass, and rolling shutters.
The value of the stolen goods on Thursday is currently unknown, but the owner estimates it could be around $3,000, expecting the losses this time to once again reach about $30,000.