Two brazen thieves robbed a California Apple store on Black Friday as employees told concerned bystanders to “let them go” amid a wave of robberies in the state.
The incident began at around 4:17 p.m., when two unidentified suspects entered the Apple store in Palo Alto and stole around $35,000 worth of iPhones and laptops, according to acting police Capt. James Reifschneider.
Video shows the two thieves, both of whom wore masks, grabbing the items from the displays while shocked customers looked on. Some employees helped customers get out of the way. When one customer asked, “Should we stop them?” another employee instructed him to “let them go.” (RELATED: Video Shows Man Stomp On Older Woman’s Head And Rob Her While She’s Unconscious)
Society is so broken in California that employees are basically trained to help assist tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise being stolen right in front of them (notice them holding customers back) as everyone else just stands around and watches.
How did we get here? pic.twitter.com/DBbWQJV3sk
— K A L E O (@CryptoKaleo) November 30, 2022
One of the suspects was overheard telling customers they would be physically assaulted if anyone tried to stop them, a threat that “escalated the crime from a burglary shoplift to a robbery,” according to Reifschneider. Police say no one was hurt and no one saw any weapons during the robbery.
The two suspects fled in a Mazda 3 hatchback and were last seen traveling northbound on Highway 101, Reifschneider said.
Authorities have not identified the suspects but said both are black males in their late teens or early twenties.
