A jaw-dropping video shows the moment nearly 100 robbers ransacked a California gas station in the middle of the night.
Surveillance footage displays dozens of masked and hoodie-wearing thieves taking their sweet time to grab as much as they can carry just after 4:30am on Friday at the station in crime-ridden Oakland.
The raid came just days after Oakland’s progressive mayor bragged about a drop in crime in the hellhole city.
The operation appeared to be well-planned with all hell breaking loose after a car was deliberately driven into the glass doors of the store.
No sooner had the crash occurred, the robbers were on scene and ready to snatch anything they could, turning the place upside down in the process.
Meanwhile, the police were nowhere to be seen with the robbers seemingly taking their time.
In video footage, those taking part in the robbery could be heard laughing as they casually perused the aisles of the store looking for stuff to take.
The owner, named Sam, called Oakland Police Department upon arriving at the 76. He was allegedly told to ‘file a report online.’
The owner told KRON4 then he then attempted to contact the OPD Police Chief Floyd Mitchell only to be told that he had to make an appointment.
Police later clarified that the call to law enforcement came after the suspects had left the premises.
‘Video evidence was later reported to OPD that made clear the scale and details of the incident, including the large number of suspects, and the incident was immediately elevated to a Priority 1 incident, which prompted an officer to go to the scene to make contact with the owner, and investigators are now reviewing evidence and working directly with the gas station owner,’ OPD said in a statement.
Just days earlier, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, 38, had been boasting of a reduction in crime in the city which has been blighted by criminality in recent years.
‘Oakland is seeing positive results from new public safety strategies’, the mayor said claiming that it was a ‘proven data-driven strategy that focuses law enforcement violence prevention and community resources on individuals in Oakland who are at highest risk to be involved in violence.’
Mayor Thao said that since introducing ‘operation ceasefire’ ‘violent crime and overall crime have decreased in a significant and sustained manner.’
The mayor failed to provide any figures explaining how levels of crime had reduced in any meaningful way.
Thao, 38, is facing a recall election less than two years into her term as mayor, with the measure that could see her booted to office set to be put to voters in November.
Increased crime and budgetary problems have challenged Thao since she assumed office in January 2023 after a stint on the Oakland City Council.
Oakland voters are upset about soaring crime in the Bay Area city.
They say Thao’s progressive, soft-on-crime policies have emboldened criminals and driven away businesses. It is a a familiar story in many progressive, Democrat cities across the country.
In Mayor Thao’s case, she has previously decried the increase in crime, stating that the uptick began in 2019 before her tenure.
But it is lax bail reform policies and the failure to bring successful prosecutions even for low-level offenses that had led to the continual rot in Oakland.
In Oakland’s case, the city has been rocked by violent crime in recent months, including murders, which soared from 78 in 2019 to 126 last year.
Crime overall increased by 18 percent in 2023 with property crime up 17 percent and violent crime up 21 percent.
And in the first four months of 2024, residential robberies soared by 118 percent on the same period last year.
Staggeringly, one car per every 30 residents was also stolen in 2023.
The situation has prompted several large corporations to pull out of the city, citing fears for staff safety and the crippling impact of retail theft.
The progressive Democrat lawmaker is the first mayor in the city’s history to be up for recall, after a campaign to oust her gained more than 40,000 signatures.
Public support for Thao has been on the wane, with Oakland’s former police chief LeRonne Armstrong urging her to resign.
‘What’s really challenging is that not only the absence of the mayor, but the absence of other city leaders stepping up in this moment to make sure that residents and people in the city of Oakland know that leadership is in place and working to help solve some of these problems,’ said LeRonne Armstrong, a former police chief fired by Thao.
Last month, federal authorities raided her home. Thao was defiant and furious, insisting she did not do anything wrong and she has no plans to resign from office.
Mayor Sheng Thao read from a prepared statement and took no questions four days after FBI agents carried boxes out of the home she shares with her son and partner as part of an investigation that included searches of two other houses owned by another family.
Retired judge Brenda Harbin-Forte, who is leading the recall campaign, is calling for Thao to step down.
‘She should do the honorable thing, and resign. The FBI raid is going to be a distraction, no matter which way you cut it. Even if she’s not charged, it’s going to be a distraction trying to manage this investigation and try to lead a city,’ Harbin-Forte said.