California Thieves Cause Car Crash, Rob Victim

If you’re thinking the Wild West is a thing of the past, you might want to reconsider. Thieves are getting pretty bold in places like Los Angeles, where a group of men used a minivan to crash into an Alfa Romeo before robbing the driver at gunpoint. This kind of crime is only spreading, so everyone needs to know about this.

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Two eyewitnesses to the crash and subsequent robbery caught part of the robbery on camera, after the collision, using their cellphones with local stations sharing the scary footage. You can see the robbers are wearing dark hoodies, masks, and gloves in an attempt to hide their identities.

After robbing the driver, the suspects all piled into a white Chevy Malibu that pulled up alongside the wrecked-out Alfa Romeo. While the bystanders got the license plate on camera, we strongly suspect the Chevy is stolen so it won’t help much with tracking down the robbers.

According to a report from KTLA, the intentional crash and robbery took place just before 1:30 pm on October 24. The thieves who were in a black Dodge Grand Caravan intentionally hit the Alfa Romeo while driving on the 10 Freeway in South Los Angeles.

It’s not clear what the robbers stole from the Alfa Romeo, with police not saying anything about that. You can see in the footage the driver kneeled down on the side of the road with his hands up. Some of the robbers seemed to be at least checking the backseat if not removing something from there. In other words, we don’t know if this driver was targeted just for having a nicer vehicle or if the robbers knew he was transporting something of value.

Police are investigating the incident as vehicular assault with robbery, a California Highway Patrol representative told ABC7. We hope when they eventually find the suspects prosecutors don’t cut them some sweet deal because the armed robbers are, after all, just victims in the whole grand scheme of things.

While people are praising the victim for “doing the right thing” and not resisting, you don’t always know if robbers will decide to execute you in these types of situations. It turned out fine this time, but we’ve seen plenty of other cases where suspects senselessly execute someone who complies with their requests. That’s just one reason why these types of crimes need to be stopped.