Fire extinguisher-wielding thieves ransack $250K worth of Chanel in DC: police
Six brazen cat burglars armed with a fire extinguisher ransacked a Chanel store in Washington, DC, Sunday, making off with $250,000 in merchandise, police said.
Shocking surveillance footage shows the group charging into the upscale retail store around 5:30 p.m. and grabbing as many handbags as they can stuff into their arms.
One of the robbers deployed the wildly spraying fire extinguisher to distract the employees, who were just 30 minutes short of shutting down the luxury store for the day.
An armed security guard employed by Chanel fired one round at the bolting burglars as they rushed back outside with their loot, but the bullet whizzed past the targets, according to Second District Cmdr. Tatjana Savoy of the Metropolitan Police Department.
The six thieves hopped back into a white sedan that they had nonchalantly left running outside with its hazards on for the heist.
They lifted about 99 designer purses, police said. The loot was worth about a quarter of a million dollars, Fox 5 reported.
Police are still on the hunt for the six thieves, two of whom held the door as four others made their way inside, said Savoy.
The fire extinguisher-wielding suspect did not strike anyone with the weapon.
“They deployed the fire extinguisher — the agent — and they used that to distract employees to take merchandise,” Savoy said.
MPD is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspects.
The Chanel security guard is also under investigation for potential use of force, according to Savoy.
