Criminal charges for looting are changing in Philly

For any SCOOP readers who might just happen to know individuals who like to stir up trouble and do things like loot at stores, tell them the Philadelphia Police are coming for them. In the past, in many cities, looting might just land you a shoplifting charge. Well, in Philadelphia, guess what? Those days are about over.

- Thera Martin

Sometime between late in the evening on Tuesday, September 26, and into the early morning of Wednesday, September 27, some folk in Philadelphia who have the ability to rouse up their troops on social media came together and decided to break some store windows in center city and grab whatever they could. They then left those crime scenes in a car caravan and traveled to North 22nd Street, where six stores were looted, or at the very least, the front doors and security gates were smashed.

The stores in Center City that were vandalized included the Apple store on Walnut Street, Lululemon, and Foot Locker. There’s even video footage of some of the vandals fighting with police as they were trying to exit some of the looted stores, arms full of stolen merchandise. Along the North 22nd Street business corridor, which runs between 22nd and Lehigh and 22nd and Allegheny, there are some one hundred businesses that are up and running. Of those, three became targets for looters. Those businesses include Patriot Pharmacy and a cell phone store in the 2900 block of North 22nd Street and Just Here Pharmacy in the 2800 hundred block. Then, at Hope Plaza at 22nd and W. Lehigh, The Rite Aid Pharmacy was hit, a vacant H&R Block storefront that is only occupied during tax season, and what was a Hair supply business that was also vacant. Nonetheless, vandals entered in search of whatever they could find.