Oakland gas station owner sidelined after police allegedly take hours to respond to flash mob robbery
Sam Mardaie, owner of an Oakland gas station that was ransacked by a flash mob, told Fox News about his dismay with the local police response and the state of crime in the area.
The owner of an Oakland, California, gas station was sidelined by a flash mob robbery that saw dozens of criminals ransack the business on Friday, especially after police allegedly took hours to respond.
"My aunts, my uncles, were talking about [how] the U.S. is the place to be, and then you turn out to this and see something like this happen, and it's scary. It just shouldn't be happening," Sam Mardaie, a Yemeni immigrant whose store was left with approximately $100,000 worth of damage, told Fox News on Sunday.
"It's just unbelievable," he added.
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According to The New York Post, Mardaie estimated that anywhere between 80 and 100 people broke into the gas station last week after attending a nearby car sideshow, ripped shelves apart and stole everything they could grab — including $25,000 from the cash register.
The report said the thieves were allegedly upset because the 24/7 store was only offering window service during the overnight hours.
The entire incident was caught on camera and captured criminals taking items from refrigerators, grabbing things from behind the counter and taking items from shelves.
Mardaie told "Fox & Friends Weekend" that he had worked for ten months since the store opened to build his customer base, but everything was destroyed in an hour.
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According to the Post's report, Mardaie claims police took nine hours to respond to his calls for help. Circling back to his discontent with the police's response on Sunday, he blasted it as "unacceptable."
"We had no response from them," he said, noting that he is slated to meet with the local chief of police on Wednesday.
"We got no excuse from them, not even an apology [for] not even showing up, not even having the courtesy to show up even. I would understand if they came in an hour or two hours later after the incident, but not until 2:30. That's the time they showed up," he added.
Two employees were in the store at the time of the incident and were threatened by suspects, according to FOX 2, an affiliate based in the California Bay Area, which includes Oakland.
In a statement to FOX 2, local law enforcement "said they received and responded to the call about a burglary at a 76 gas station nearby around 90 minutes later and had initially ranked the crime as a Priority 2 — meaning no suspects were on scene and that the crime can be reported online."
The outlet also said that, after video of the incident was sent in to local police, they ranked the crime as a Priority 1 and sent an officer to the scene.
Local law enforcement additionally told the outlet they were responding to a sideshow at the nearby airport.
Fox News also previously reached out to local police for comment.
Fox News' Brie Stimson contributed to this report.