Looters swarm Minnesota stores in 'grab and run' heists

Dozens of looters allegedly swarmed Minnesota Best Buys in "grab and runs" during Black Friday, according to police reports from Minneapolis suburbs Maplewood and Burnsville.

Maplewood police posted on Facebook that shortly after 8:00 pm Friday night, 10-12 suspects entered a Best Buy "to steal multiple high value items."

The Maplewood police are "looking into whether this group of thieves are connected to any other similar thefts in the metro this weekend."

Burnsville was also hit, as police told the local NBC-affiliate KARE 11 that a group of 20 to 30 thieves allegedly took an

"unspecified" number of products at another Best Buy. 

While no injuries were reported, as of Saturday, no one was arrested.

Best Buy told KARE, "Retailers across the country are seeing spikes in crime. These incidents have been, by and large, non-violent though often traumatic for those who witnessed them. As an industry, we are working with local law enforcement and taking additional security precautions where it makes sense."

Minneapolis, and the surrounding area, has been at the center of the defund the police movement since the death of George Floyd last year. Earlier this month, Minneapolis voters rejected a proposal to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with the "Department of Public Safety."

Other stores were hit across the country during Black Friday. As Just the News reported, a "string of high-class retail shops," including Canada Goose and North Face, were hit in Chicago.