Angelenos concerned as LA follow-home robberies trend upward

Follow-home robberies trending up in Los Angeles

Another follow-home robbery has Angelenos worried for their safety. According to LAPD, the department has logged more than 200 such cases since they started tracking them.

LOS ANGELES - In what has become an increasingly disturbing pattern, criminals followed a group of tourists celebrating a birthday from a nice restaurant in the Beverly Glen area, to the Coldwater Canyon Airbnb they were staying at and robbed them at gunpoint.

The four victims tell investigators they actually noticed a luxury vehicle following them, and took a different route, even adding U-turns to lose them. Still, the moment they parked in the driveway, the vehicle appeared, with three armed men jumping out. They took all their belongings and forced them to take them inside the house, where one ended up being pistol whipped before the suspects ransacked the house and left.

Investigators with LAPD’s Robbery Homicide say they are looking into at least 250 of these. Just last week, LAPD Chief Michel Moore spoke about the explosion in this type of crime, which they have linked to at least a dozen LA area gangs. These are well planned and professionally executed, says one detective.

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In the first three months of 2022, there have been almost half s many as in all of last year, according to LAPD numbers, and while the department has a special task force dealing with the problem, and they have made some arrests, the problem continues.

Neighbors we talked to are afraid, and upset. They are avoiding wearing flashy jewelry, or clothing. Some are even avoiding shopping at luxury stores in person, or going to expensive restaurants. Still, asks one resident, where is the accountability? Why aren’t these criminals going to, and staying in, prison?

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Advice, if you are heading home and feel you are being followed. Go directly to a police or fire station and tell them what is going on.

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