Thieves swarm high-end shops to snatch $300,000 in handbags, California police say
Palo Alto CA June 24 2021 Thieves ran off with $50,000 in high-end handbags Monday after swarming a Palo Alto store, California police say.
The theft echoes two similar incidents at other high-end stores in the San Francisco Bay Area community since May, Palo Alto police said in a statement.
On May 19, 10 people stole $150,000 in handbags from Neiman Marcus at Stanford Shopping Center, and on June 7 11 people stole $100,000 in handbags from Louis Vuitton in the same center.
The thieves stole from 20 to 43 handbags in each incident, in some cases ripping them from security cables, police said.
On Monday, five people entered The RealReal and snatched about 20 handbags before fleeing. A security guard tried to block them from exiting, but two people waiting outside threatened to pull a gun, police said. No gun was seen.
The intruders, all men, wore masks and had their hoods up, police said. The earlier incidents involved both men and women.
Police ask that anyone with information on the thefts contact the 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.
