A Compton bakery was pillaged by an unruly mob during a boisterous street takeover early Tuesday. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported that the incident occurred outside Ruben's Bakery & Mexican Food Inc., situated at 2701 N. Santa Fe Ave. A call came in around 3:30 a.m. about a street event, and shortly thereafter, another alert was received about approximately 100 individuals breaking into the bakery.
Early surveillance footage acquired by KTLA shows a white vehicle, identified as a Kia Soul, being used to smash through the storefront. A throng of people are then seen surging through the bakery, seizing goods and dashing off. The driver abandoned the vehicle at the scene, while others fled on foot and in various vehicles. Responding deputies found a trash bin ablaze in the middle of an intersection, but no arrests had been made at the time of reporting.
Inside the store, the scene was one of devastation. Surveillance cameras captured suspects upending the business, hauling away lottery tickets, cash, and merchandise, leaving a heap of disorder in their wake. "Ruben's suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage," employee Juan Chavez said in a statement obtained by CBS News Los Angeles. The Sheriff's Department is to conduct a follow-up with the registered owner of the car that was used to ram the bakery, to ascertain whether it had been stolen prior to the incident.
Residents, having had to perennially endure the chaos wrought by such street takeovers, voiced their exasperation at a city council meeting following the plundering. "Setting cars on fire, crashing into innocent victims," one local, Cindi Enamorado, whose brother died in a related incident, told CBS News Los Angeles. "I don't know. None of that is waking anyone up." Mayor Emma Sharif responded to these concerns, assuring that "We do hear them and that we are listening to them. We do understand their concerns. We are working diligently to address those concerns."
Meanwhile, the community grapples with the frequency of such disruptive events. A woman, opting for anonymity, expressed to ABC7 that street takeovers in the area had become a numbing norm, saying, "It's kind of normal for us now, which is kind of sad to say." The LASD indicated that though the crowd dispersed upon their arrival, the detention of a few individuals possibly linked to the street takeover may have occurred. The public with any information has been urged to contact authorities to aid the investigation.
