At least 20 people broke into a Superior Grocers store near Manchester Avenue and San Pedro Street in South Los Angeles early Sunday, ransacking the shelves during an illegal street takeover that drew LAPD officers to the scene around 4:30 a.m. Store employees barricaded themselves on the store's second floor as the crowd swarmed in, and police took one person into custody. Officers said they still do not know how much merchandise the thieves made off with, and it remains unclear when the store will reopen.
No injuries were reported in the break-in, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The incident was first reported by ABC7 Los Angeles, which noted the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department maintains a task force dedicated specifically to cracking down on illegal street takeovers and the crimes that spin out of them.
A Week of Takeover-Fueled Burglaries Across LA
The Superior Grocers looting came just a week after a separate mob burglarized Lorena Pharmacy in Boyle Heights during a 100-person street takeover, according to Patch. In that case, burglars cut through metal security bars on the pharmacy's windows with a saw, smashed the glass, and ran out with items, all before hitting a nearby Jack in the Box cash register roughly 15 minutes later.
That same stretch of weeks saw a string of AutoZone burglaries hit East Los Angeles, Watts, and Downey, with the East LA store on Olympic Boulevard struck twice within 24 hours for more than $50,000 in stolen merchandise and damage, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of the Olympic and Atlantic takeover. The chain's stores were broken into and looted four separate times over just a few days, with incidents also unfolding around 3 a.m. in a pattern investigators have seen repeat itself across the county in 2024 and 2025.
Legal Tools Police Are Leaning On
Investigators face a tough tactical problem: takeover crowds gather fast, loot fast, and scatter the moment police arrive, forcing detectives to rely on video footage and warrants served well after the fact. Under California Vehicle Code sections 23109.2 and 23109.5, officers can impound vehicles tied to sideshows or takeovers for up to 30 days even when no driver is arrested on scene, per the California Highway Patrol. Investigators can also pursue post-event search warrants to seize vehicles identified later in video, a tactic the Sylmar Neighborhood Council has highlighted as part of a broader legal shift.
State law has also moved to punish participants beyond the drivers themselves. Beginning July 1, 2025, courts gained authority to suspend driver's licenses for 90 days to six months upon sideshow or takeover convictions, while officers can now impound vehicles belonging to spectators and promoters who aid the events, according to the Sylmar Neighborhood Council. On the retail-theft side, a 10-bill package signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in August 2024 — including Assembly Bill 2943 — lets prosecutors combine stolen property values across multiple stores or dates to reach the $950 felony grand theft threshold, as detailed by CalMatters. The same law allows police to arrest shoplifting suspects based on video footage alone, without witnessing the theft firsthand.
When two or more people coordinate to steal merchandise for resale, prosecutors can also reach for California Penal Code Section 490.4, which treats organized retail theft as a wobbler offense carrying up to three years in state prison. In July, Los Angeles County officials proposed doubling misdemeanor fines to $1,000 for street takeover organizers and promoters under amendments to Chapter 13.46 of the county code, a response Hoodline covered following a series of violent takeover incidents, including a fatal shooting at a Carson event.
A Pattern With Deep Roots
Commercial businesses getting swept up in takeover chaos is not a new phenomenon in Southern California. In January 2024, a mob of more than 100 people ransacked Ruben's Bakery in Compton after a stolen car was rammed into the storefront during a takeover, causing up to $70,000 in damage before sheriff's deputies arrested five suspects, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. That case, which involved a 13-year-old driver and four adult co-defendants, remains a touchstone for how quickly a sideshow can turn into a full-scale burglary.
The scale of the broader problem is significant. Law enforcement agencies documented more than 1,000 street takeover events across Los Angeles County over an 18-month period, according to data cited by the California Contract Cities Association and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, while statewide figures link sideshows and street racing to 264 crashes, 124 serious injuries, and 30 fatalities. That toll has pushed local officials to keep petitioning state lawmakers for tougher enforcement tools.
LAPD task forces have shown they will keep working cases long after the crowds disperse. In November 2024, the department's Organized Retail Crime Task Force and Street Racing Task Force jointly served search warrants in South Los Angeles and Highland Park to arrest two men connected to a June 2024 takeover looting of a South LA AutoZone that caused $67,000 in property loss, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Investigators serving those warrants also seized unregistered firearms, more than $10,000 in cash, and narcotics. Whether similar follow-up arrests will emerge from Sunday's Superior Grocers looting remains to be seen, as police continue working to determine exactly what was taken and by whom.
