Brazen Burglars Are Crashing Vehicles Into Stores
OAKLAND, Calif.—A new crime trend is crashing, quite literally, into American retailers. Burglars are using stolen vehicles to barge through storefronts and then loot ATMs, guns and other valuables inside.
Known as “ram raiding,” the tactic is creating fresh headaches for retailers, who have already been under siege from organized retail-theft rings in many parts of the country. The battering rams of choice are often stolen Hyundais and Kias, officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said. Those cars have become targets of criminals nationwide because they lack certain antitheft technology and are relatively easy to steal, police have said.
The attacks have been most concentrated on the West Coast. In an unusually brazen attack in Oakland, thieves on Nov. 6 used a backhoe to crash into an ampm convenience store and yank out the ATM with chains. Store officials declined to comment. Police say they are looking for suspects.
At the Beauty Supply Warehouse across the street, supervisor Luis Montoya said that the establishment has been hit with seven attempted drive-through burglaries in the past two months—despite being encircled with steel posts and having four metal security doors. Burglars haven’t managed to break in yet, although Montoya says the store’s doors have been damaged by efforts to yank them open with chains. “I’ve lived here 26 years and never seen it as bad as this,” Montoya said, adding that the store has removed an ATM from its premises as a result.
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