Sacramento sheriff’s detectives search for suspects that ‘terrorized’ 7-Eleven in Rio Linda
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office on Friday released video, hoping to identify dozens of people who smashed windows at a Rio Linda 7-Eleven and ransacked the store earlier this month.
The smash-and-grab robbery at the convenience store occurred about 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 at the 7-Eleven on the southwest corner of Elkhorn and Rio Linda boulevards. Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said the “looting” occurred at the store after a sideshow that had taken place nearby with about 40 to 50 people.
Sideshows are gatherings in which groups of drivers illegally take over intersections, city streets, stretches of busy freeways and parking lots to do tricks with their cars, including burnouts and doughnuts.
Gandhi said the suspects “terrorized” the store as they smashed the large front windows and the glass front doors, even though the 7-Eleven was open for business at the time. He said at least one employee, not shown in the video, was cowering in a corner of the store to avoid injury. No injuries were reported.
“This was straight-up looting,” Gandhi said Friday. “This is not simple shoplifting.”
The Sheriff’s Office released a nearly 4-minute portion of the video captured on the 7-Eleven store’s security camera. The video shows dozens of unidentified suspects enter the 7-Eleven through the large broken windows, even though they could’ve walked in through the doors, and grab numerous items from store shelves and what appears to be cases of beer from the refrigerators toward the back.
Some suspects are seen in the video ducking through the front counter and plastic partitions installed to prevent further spread of COVID-19, before they grabbed whatever they could from behind the counter. The video shows some of the suspects waiting just outside the broken windows before they took their turn to enter and ransack the 7-Eleven.
Some suspects are seen in the video, including one wearing a Halloween clown mask that had orange hair, coming back into the store to steal more items. Some suspects are seen using the top of their shirts or other clothing to hide the lower portion of their faces as they entered the store.
Gandhi said the suspects took everything they could grab that wasn’t bolted down, including electronics merchandise, food items and tobacco products. But he said the suspect did not steal any cash from the registers or any lottery tickets.
Patrol deputies from the Sheriff’s Office north county division were at the scene about five minutes after the store break-in was reported, but the suspects had already left.
Deputies and detectives from the sheriff’s Property Crimes Bureau began their investigation, canvassing the area to try to find witnesses. Gandhi said the investigation shows that some of these suspects are likely from the Bay Area.
The detectives asked anyone with information about this 7-Eleven store break-in to call the Sheriff’s Office at 916-874-5115 or the Sacramento Valley Crime Stoppers tip line at 916-443-4357.
