Resident John Alle wrote that last Friday on his way home around 8:30 p.m., he stopped to buy coffee at CVS. He parked upstairs and entered the store at the bottom of the stairwell. “I noticed complete mayhem and chaos,” Alle said.
The store manager was asking more than 30 kids, who had overrun the store, to leave. A store clerk said they were also back near the pharmacy area shoplifting and harassing customers.
Alle did not say anything to the kids, but pulled out his phone and started filming and taking photos.
“That seemed to work,” he said, because the kids all fled. “The CVS staff thanked me, and I suggested they use their phone cameras as well the next time.
I am not sure if the LAPD was called but private security officers arrived within minutes of my entering and stood by the entrance inside and out.
One wonders if the Police arrived in time to even arrest a couple of kids and took them to the West L.A. Police Station, asking parents to pick them up.
Many residents feel the kids who are shoplifting from CVS, including alcohol, and their parents need to be “inconvenienced,” by a trip to the police station, so this criminal activity stops. Others worry that this juvenile activity could result in the closure of this CVS.
Alle said that “a lot of Palisadians tell me they don’t feel comfortable going shopping anywhere after dark anymore.” When he drove home, he found about half of the group had gone from CVS and were sitting on the steps of the Frontier Building at the corner of Swarthmore and La Cruz Drive.
Security Guards were called on Friday night to CVS because of youth shoplifting, causing mayhem and threatening customers.
Photo: JOHN ALLE
Perhaps the community should have a conversation w/ our teens and ask what would be a good alternative to hanging around the town with little to occupy them. A good teen center may be appropriate so that there is a safe designated place for teens, at least the younger ones who might get caught up in the mob thinking, could have a safe secure place to hang out, listen to music, play group video games, etc. When I was a kid, there were bowling alleys to go to that also had video games. There were teen centers, etc. Bored teens are always looking for something to do and if there aren’t options they create their own activities, many of which are not appreciated by adults. How can this be facilitated? Why don’t we start at the high school and middle school, and ask for assistance from any of the private schools that have kids enrolled from the 6th grade on? Instead of looking outside to complain about the violence and mayhem elsewhere why don’t we start with our town and see if a good collaboration can be achieved?
Once again, thank you Sue for shining a light on the continual, menacing and violent behavior that has been plaguing our community for almost 2 years now. Why does a mob of 30 kids need to enter a CVS on a Friday night after dark and not a single one of them walk out with a shopping bag for snacks, soda or make-up? Many of us know why and the aftermath was finally caught on video. Something that was strange to me was the Nextdoor post by a father whose son is seen in the video. The post mentions the son was running away from a group of older teens threatening to taze him yet the majority of the father’s post is focused on professing his son’s innocence while at CVS and attacking you. I was shocked that the father’s ND post (using ALL CAPS) doesn’t lead with, “MY SON WAS CHASED BY TEENS THREATENING TO TAZE HIM!!” Clearly this is not a community member who is aware of what’s been happening in this town, because that would have been much more productive of him. It’s thanks to you that the citizens of the Palisades are finally able to hear and see what so many of us have been trying to tell the schools and law enforcement for two years. As a parent who’s child has been a victim of bullying in this community in the past year and as a member of this community that is fed up with the constant harassment, threats and violence by teens here, to you I say, bravo.