Just hours after California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of legislation to combat burglaries in the crime-plagued state, a large group of thieves stormed three different 7-Eleven stores in Los Angeles, stole food and drinks, and then fled on bicycles, according to NBC.
The group of up to 30 “children and teenagers” began their rampage shortly after 8 p.m. in front of the 7-Eleven at 7040 West Sunset Boulevard, where they smashed a window and stole items.
About 15 minutes later, they then went to a store near Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, where an employee was allegedly assaulted, the outlet reported.
NEWSOM SIGNS PACKAGE TO CURTAIN ROBBERY AND AUTO THEFT
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bipartisan package of legislation to combat retail crime during a press conference with state and local officials at Home Depot in San Jose, California, on Friday, August 16, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A third store on Santa Monica Boulevard was burglarized around 8:22 p.m., the outlet reported. A store window was smashed and more than $2,000 worth of items were stolen, including a box of chargers, the outlet reported, citing a store manager.
A store manager told the newspaper that the youths seen on CCTV Friday appeared to be the same group that robbed two other 7-Eleven stores in the area last week. Footage from one of the robberies shows the youths looting a store with their faces uncovered and clearly visible.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
The series of break-ins on Friday came after Newsom called his new bills a turning point in the Golden State’s effort to combat the lawless behavior that has plagued California and other states in recent years. The incidents were in many cases captured on video and posted online, drawing national attention to the rise in shoplifting in the Golden State.
The bipartisan package of ten bills provides for tougher penalties for repeat offenders and those who operate professional resale schemes.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bipartisan package of 10 bills on Friday that would impose tougher penalties on repeat offenders and those who operate professional resale schemes. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
The law allows prosecutors to add together the value of items stolen from different victims in different counties to meet the threshold for grand theft and impose harsher penalties for lightning strikes and large-scale resale.
“This gets to the heart of the problem in a thoughtful and prudent way,” Newsom said of the package. “This is the real deal.”
Although the package received bipartisan support in the California Legislature, some progressive Democrats did not vote for it because they were concerned that parts of the package were too punitive.
The law also aims to curb cargo theft and close a loophole to make it easier to track car thefts, regardless of whether the vehicle was locked or not. It also requires marketplaces like eBay to collect bank account and tax identification numbers from wholesalers.
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A 7-Eleven logo is seen on a store in Manhattan on July 16, 2024. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
This comes as Democratic leaders demonstrate their tough stance on crime while urging voters to reject House Bill 36, which would charge repeat shoplifting and certain drug offenses with felony charges and impose harsher penalties for those crimes.
Newsom and his fellow Democrats worked unsuccessfully for months to keep Proposition 36 off the November ballot. Democrats feared the measure would disproportionately criminalize low-income people with drug problems rather than targeting the ringleaders who hire large groups of people to steal goods and resell them online.
Landon Mion of Fox News and tThe Associated Press contributed to this report.
