A 7-Eleven store clerk in Anaheim, California, outside Los Angeles was brutally beaten by about 50 suspects in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The attack against the store clerk, identified only as Narender by FOX 11 LA, is one in a string of so-called “flash mob” attacks across the Southern California region in which dozens of offenders force their ways into convenience stores to steal various items and cash, according to FOX 11 Los Angeles.
Surveillance video footage of the incident reportedly shows Narender trying to fend off the mob with a stick. One of the suspects also threw a large rock or cinder block at Nerander.
Another video shared with Fox News Digital by Carlos_kickback_3 on Instagram shows the mob suspects ignoring Nerander’s pleas to stop and swearing at him as he tried to defend his store.
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A 7-Eleven store owner was attacked during a “flash mob” robbery on Sunday. (carlos_kickback_3 on Instagram)
Nerander speaks Hindi, and during an interview with FOX 11 LA, his brother told the outlet that he had only been working at the Anaheim 7-Eleven for five months.
More than a dozen instances of the flash mob crimes have occurred throughout the summer since July in the Orange County area, with teenagers biking to convenience stores, forcing their way inside and robbing the stores of merchandise and money, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
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The Los Angeles Times previously reported that some parents were reporting their children for taking part in such activities in late September.
“They did the right thing because if you don’t stop them young, they could go pretty far with it,” local resident Tiffany Brown told FOX 11.
The LAPD issued a press release on Sept. 25 calling the 14 incidents that have occurred since July “Flash Robberies,” which they said involved between 20 and 40 suspects. Thriteen of those 14 incidents occurred on Friday nights.
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“The suspects enter the stores in the evening hours, remove merchandise, damage property, and flee without paying,” LAPD said. “The incidents have been captured on security surveillance videos. The suspects are described as youthful males, possibly teens varying in ethnicity and physical descriptors. In several incidents, the witnesses were physically pushed by the suspects during the criminal take-over of the stores, with no regard for others safety.”
Fox News’ Pilar Arias contributed to this report.
