Just hours after California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of bills to combat violent robberies in the crime-ridden state, a large group of robbers broke into three separate 7-Eleven stores in Los Angeles, stealing food and drinks before fleeing on bicycles, according to NBC.
The group of up to 30 “children and teenagers” began their rampage at the 7-Eleven located at 7040 West Sunset Boulevard shortly after 8 p.m., where they smashed a window and stole items.
They then moved to a store near Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Ave. about 15 minutes later, where a worker there was allegedly assaulted, the outlet reported.
NEWSOM SIGNS PACKAGE TO CLEAN UP STRIKES AND CAR THEFTS
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a package of bipartisan bills to combat retail crime during a news conference with state and local officials at the Home Depot in San Jose, Calif., Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A third store on Santa Monica Boulevard was hit around 8:22 p.m., the outlet reports, where a front window was smashed and more than $2,000 worth of items were taken, including a box of chargers, the outlet reports, citing a store manager.
A store manager told the outlet that the teens caught on surveillance cameras Friday appear to be the same group that attacked two other 7-Eleven stores in the area last week. Footage from one of the robberies shows the teens 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.
Friday’s string of robberies came after Newsom hailed his new bills as a turning point in the Golden State’s attempt to address illegal behavior that has plagued California and other states in recent years. In many cases, the incidents have been caught on video and posted online, drawing national attention to the rise in retail theft in the Golden State.
The bipartisan package of 10 bills creates stricter penalties for repeat offenders and individuals who run professional reselling schemes.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bipartisan package of 10 bills that create stricter penalties for repeat offenders and people who run professional reselling schemes. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
The legislation allows prosecutors to combine the value of items stolen from different victims in multiple counties to help meet the felony threshold for grand larceny and to apply harsher penalties for large-scale thefts and resale operations.
“This gets to the heart of the matter and does so in a thoughtful and sensible way,” Newsom said of the package. “It's a real deal.”
While the package received bipartisan support in the California Legislature, some progressive Democrats did not vote for it out of fear that some parts were too punitive.
The legislation also aims to address cargo thefts and close a loophole to make it easier to prosecute car thefts regardless of whether the vehicle was locked and requires marketplaces like eBay to begin collecting bank account and tax identification numbers from high-volume sellers.
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A 7-Eleven logo is seen at a store in Manhattan on July 16, 2024. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
This comes as Democratic leaders work to show they are tough on crime while urging voters to reject Proposition 36, a ballot measure that would impose felony charges for repeat offenders on shoplifting and certain drug charges and create harsher sentences for these crimes.
Newsom and his fellow state Democrats worked for months on an unsuccessful effort to keep Proposition 36 off the ballot for the November election. Democrats feared the measure would disproportionately criminalize low-income people and those with addiction problems instead of targeting the ringleaders who hire large groups of people to steal goods for resale online.
Landon Mion and Fox News hostThe Associated Press contributed to this report.
