A Los Angeles businessman whose warehouse was looted by a mob of young people who crashed their way through the gate in a stolen car is demanding Democratic leaders take crime more seriously.
“I voted for Karen Bass. I voted for Biden. I voted for Gavin Newsom. I’m sick of it,” Ryan Baggaley told FOX Los Angeles outside his boarded-up warehouse Wednesday. “It’s like, at some point you have to give me a reason to vote for you again.”
Baggaley, speaking with Fox News Digital, said he and his three brothers run the family construction business that their father founded 50 years ago – Delta Construction & Electric Co. Despite steel gates and roll-down doors, thieves slammed a stolen car into their warehouse in Los Angeles’ Glassell Park neighborhood before dawn Wednesday.
“The rage that me and my brothers have,” he said. “You work so hard just to survive and make a living, and oh, cool, you just bashed our whole building up.”
‘RAM RAIDING,’ ‘CRASH AND GRAB’ NEW VIOLENT BURGLARY TREND TARGETING BRICK-AND-MORTAR BUSINESSES
A still image taken from surveillance video shows a crash-and-grab robbery that cost a Los Angeles business owner an estimated $100,000 when thieves smashed through his gates with a stolen car Wednesday and then drove through a door before pilfering tools, construction supplies and other valuables. (Courtesy of Ryan Baggaley)
Video shows the thieves initially rammed through the wrong gate, blasting a hole through it as one of the hooded accomplices pointed down the street and told the driver, “Nah, over there, that gate.”
They took thousands of dollars in tools and also stole personal valuables the brothers kept inside, including musical instruments and studio equipment, even as a recording blared through the security system warning, “You are currently being recorded.” Baggaley estimated the total loss at over $100,000.
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The company’s Ring system sent out an alert around 5 a.m., Baggaley said. His wife called 911 six times in a half-hour period as he raced to the warehouse in person, he said. Police arrived two hours later, blaming staffing shortages and having no officers in the area.
He criticized the “defund the police” movement and said that while he believes in holding bad cops accountable for their behavior, the majority of police on the street provide an important service for society.
A still image from surveillance video shows a crash-and-grab robbery that cost a Los Angeles business owner an estimated $100,000 when thieves smashed through his gates with a stolen car and drove through a door before pilfering tools, construction supplies and other valuables. (Courtesy of Ryan Baggaley)
“I do want some action and want to say something and do something and vote for people who want to put policies in place to make it a more civilized country – where you can do your job and show up to work and make a living and not be constantly frustrated,” he said. “I have to create security measures. We already fortify our building — tall gates, fences, a security system, roll-downs and dead bolts on the front doors. What are we gonna do now?”
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Baggaley is a self-described fiscal conservative who leans liberal on social issues and tends to vote Democrat, he said. But he took aim at elected officials he says are too afraid of standing up to the most vocal activists with the most extreme views.
“If you gave me an alternative, I certainly would vote for them, if they made some sense,” he said.
He said he is proud to be a Californian, a descendant of pioneers who built the West, but has had enough with soft-on-crime policy. Multiple businesses on the same strip had been burglary targets in recent weeks, including four attacks on the business next door.
Thieves smashed through the gates of a warehouse with a stolen car Wednesday and then drove through a door before pilfering an estimated $100,000 in tools, construction supplies and other valuables. (Courtesy of Ryan Baggaley)
“At some point, you look at it, and you go, ‘Why aren’t there cops on the street at this time?'” he said.
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The “crash and grab” or “ram-raiding” trend has been picking up steam around the country. A highly publicized break-in at a Missouri gun store cost the owners about $30,000 in merchandise and more than $200,000 in repairs. Smaller brick-and-mortar stores, including boutiques that specialize in rare vintage and collectible clothing, have been put out of business.
The suspect vehicle used in Baggaley’s break-in was stolen from the LAPD’s impound yard, he said.
“I don’t want to leave,” Baggaley said. “I’m not leaving. I’m standing my ground. I want it to be better.”
