Upper Darby police released this surveillance image that they said was recorded during the invasion of the store by dozens of youths.
Posted on 06/27/2011 11:55:30 AM PDT by NoLibZone
DOZENS OF West Philly boys - ranging in age from 11 to 19 - stormed a Sears store in Upper Darby on Thursday as part of a "flash mob" and made off with thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise, police said.
Upper Darby police released this surveillance image that they said was recorded during the invasion of the store by dozens of youths.
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said he believed that the group organized the mass theft through social networking, although the exact networking site was not yet clear.
He said that the kids traveled together on public transportation and arrived at the store on 69th Street en masse about 7:10 p.m.
The kids - Chitwood estimated there were around 40 boys - scattered throughout the store and began to "rob, steal and pillage," he said.
They took everything from sneakers to watches but left behind the boxes and tags, Chitwood said.
As of this weekend, Sears was still trying to tally up its losses, which were believed to be in the thousands of dollars, police said.
Responding officers were able to capture 16 of the suspects, the youngest of which was 11 and the oldest, 19. The 19-year-old was charged with retail theft and corrupting the morals of a minor.
The other 15, all of whom were juveniles from West Philadelphia, were charged with retail theft and released to the custody of their parents, Chitwood said.
"When this mob mentality comes to a community and robs a village, there has to be consequences," he said. "That's the only way you're going to stop this."
Chitwood said that while some of the parents were very upset when they picked their kids up, for some, it seemed just "like part of a day's work."
"People have to realize this is not condoned, funny or cute. It's criminal. Period," Chitwood said. "If you've got an 11-year-old involved in this type of mob mentality, what are they going to be doing when they are 16?"
They should make it a felony to commit crimes using social networking tools.
Holder's and Obama's peoples first priority following Hurricane Katrina in the Chocolate City.
Lock the doors, send in a SWAT team and arrest every last one of them. Let them learn that a flash mob in a store can be reduced to a cage full of animals that will not be released except via law enforcement. Prosecute them to the max. If need be, arm the employees so they can deal with the caged animals.
somewhere Saul Alinksy is doing a face-palm and lamenting “if ONLY they had had Twitter when I was alive...”
organized anarchists?????
These people wonder why companies don’t want to open stores in their neighborhoods? All companies should just close down the stores in the ghettos. Then figure out what to do in other areas if come there. These people are useless and don’t even know it.
“Flash mobs” started off as a silly and sort of cute thing done by young artistic types in New York and other big cities. Somebody would organize a “flash mob” and suddenly a large number of harmless, well-educated, and sometimes slightly drunk young people would converge on a particular spot and all do a dance, sing a chorus of something, etc.
The press started referring to these “wilding” attacks by young black thugs as “flash mobs” basically to make them sound like fun-loving romps rather than vicious attacks on businesses and non-black people.
We are not supposed to take happiness from the misfortunes of others, but boy do I take pleasure from watching these deep blue Democrat cesspool cities get theirs from their own insane Liberal politics.
Anarchy in the political sense doesn’t mean a state of chaos or no civic structures. They are socialist in mindset and coordinate protests/riots around the world. They also want state run medicine.
Who are they calling “Boys”?
They’ve been told by charlatans that they’re oppressed, so what do you expect?
Professor Gates would say you’re imagining “scary black people”.
And because the have been trained that they are oppressed, they have a hugely disproportionate rate of violence.
Which necessitates all the other races watch them closely.
Be respectful, be courteous , have a plan to kill every flash mob member that threatens you & others
Jeez. I used to shop there. Upper Darby was probably never great, but it was tolerable and the only place to shop if you needed to use public transportation and didn’t want to go to center city.
I cannot imagine being a customer in the store and seeing this crap happen. Today it’s clothes off the rack, tomorrow they start robbing cash registers and customers.
They need to start implementing long prison sentences with these folks.
Nah, just apply the hate crime laws since this is obviously targeted at the capitalist minority.
Obviously the government must take over and control everything about “social networks” including the entire internet. It’s for our own good and we all know government can solve all problems.
But seriously, this is going to get out of hand if it continues. How do we reach these KeeedS!
the key item you stated was “public transportation”.. they should expect these incidents to grow (and mostly go unreported) for the rest of the summer given that the unemployment rate for black teens and men is like 60%. This is Obama and Holder’s version of “reparations”..
Someone please add the “looter guy from New Orleans” to all of these photos.
<the key item you stated was “public transportation”..
Many people of all colors in large cities use public transportation; it’s not a crime nor does it indicate a criminal mindset. Many blacks in Philly and its environs have cars. I don’t see one causing the other.
<they should expect these incidents to grow ... given that the unemployment rate for black teens and men is like 60%.
Blacks have always been chronically underemployed, that doesn’t mean that the un- or underemployed have to engage in criminal activity.
This flash mob crap has to stop and penalized to the fullest extent of the law, but I’m not going to use flash mobs as an excuse for racism. I don’t care what the race is - I’d have the same negative reaction if the mobs were Hispanics in Austin, TX or whites in Boston.
“I like the way you think Mellon! I’ll be watching you!”
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