Market Watch – by Catey Hill
In just 90 seconds, they’d made off with over $10,000 in cosmetics.
Groups known as “flash-mob robbers” storm a store, steal thousands in merchandise in minutes and bolt as quickly as they arrive. Among the most notorious are the Rainbow Girls — a group of female thieves, named for their brightly hued hair — who’ve hit dozens of stores in the Bay Area. Their high-stakes heists have included Ulta ULTA, +1.21% where the beauty burglars stole an estimated $11,000 worth of goods in less than two minutes. The mostly girl gang has also walked off with a combined more than $130,000 worth of luxury goods from Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton LVMUY, -2.57% Christian Dior and Sunglass Hut LUX, -0.37% , according to charges filed against a dozen members of the Rainbow Girls in the Bay Area in October. Continue reading “The nasty rise of ‘flash mob robbers’”