Walking through my extremely quiet neighborhood, heading down to Lyndale. I’m awake. I have a press credential. If there’s stuff happening in my neighborhood I may as well go do my job. I can hear helicopters.
Walked down a long stretch of Lyndale and saw no other people outside of cars. As I get to Lyn Lake, I can see some folks mulling around.
Talked to a man who didn’t want to give his name. He went out to see what was going on and ended up following small groups of smash and grab looters as they worked their way down Lake.
From what he told me, there was a system. Nice cars, Jeep Cherokee, dropping people off, picking them up a couple blocks away with loot.
From his description, this seems like opportunistic robberies in Uptown. Not part of the protests. “It’s just sad,” he said. “I can understand if somebody wants to bust up a police station, but these are just small businesses.”
Police car heading full blast with sirens north on Lyndale.
He came back around and told me I could use his first name, Ishmael. His version of how this is going down in Uptown is corroborated by Justin, who works at Toppers and saw people run out of the jewelry store with a safe, load it in a car and drive off.
Store owners are hanging outside their businesses, unsure of what to do other than make it clear someone is present. I talked to the owner of Legacy Glass.
Basic story keeps being told the same: groups of people scouting out locations in cars, setting lookouts, smash, grab, go. Toppers employees got one of their license plates though.
At this point there’s a lot of, for lack of a better word, tourists. Which includes me, I suppose. People driving around the area. Groups out walking and taking photos of crime scenes. I worry a little about police (who are starting to show up) mistaking tourists for thieves.
Thurston jewelers is now getting a second round of theft, capitalizing on existing smash and grab. I just watched these guys wander up and crawl through an already busted window.
Talked to a group of local men who had been watching the neighborhood and seeing what has been going on. They didn’t want to talk but one said “Just stop killing people. Just stop killing my people.”
Once you’re off Lyn-Lake everything gets real quiet again. There’s definitely a targeted style to the robberies in Uptown. Nobody was smashing the vintage clothing store or the tarot card and crystal shop. This is very different from what happened by Minnehaha.
There’s yelling behind me and it looks like police are arresting the secondary robbers at the jewelry store
Four police cars just drove by me
I’m using “theft” and “robbery” rather than looting to distinguish what is a really different pattern
There’s now about 10 police cars at the jewelry store. A man is trying to film the police, they’re shining a light in his camera. And mine.
Talked to the man filming. He’s from northside. Didn’t want to give his name. Came down here to witness and film. Said the police are mostly handling themselves well in Uptown, other than the [expletive deleted] who was trying to obstruct filming.
Police just arrested the guy who I watched jump in the window earlier.
There’s an ambulance here now and I’m unclear why. I didn’t see anyone get injured.
Ran back into Ishmael. He and the Toppers employees chased off some thieves while I was gone.
Talked to a woman who arrived around the same time as the cops. It’s unclear whether all the people just arrested were, as I said earlier, thieves or tourists. One guy brought out of the store. Others grabbed at bus stop.
Crowds are getting bigger here but my battery is running low. I’m gonna head home soon.
People speeding through traffic to yell at police almost hit the ambulance.
It is weirdly quiet once you’re off Lyndale. Sirens seem far away. Crickets and birds. A dude on rollerblades for some reason.
It’s like I just stepped back into a mostly normal night.
Also in case my mother is reasing this, I did wear my mask. Kitten-print side out because that seemed nonthreatening.
