Department requests Information From The Public
By Dolores Quintana
The Robbery Homicide Division (RHD) of the LAPD has issued a warning about a trend of “follow home” robberies that are being committed in the City of Los Angeles this year.
Since early 2021, RHD’s Robbery Special Section has noticed an upward trend of these kinds of robberies and started to track any crimes that fit the description. What the detectives noticed is that victims of this type of crime were followed home or to their place of business from areas like Melrose Avenue, the Jewelry District in Downtown LA or high end restaurants and nightclubs. From the patterns displayed by the robbers, people seemed to be targeted because of the vehicles that they drove or jewelry that they wore.
To date, there have been over 110 robberies that were identified as “follow home” type incidents by the RHD. However, after review of these crimes and after speaking with detectives in the victim’s neighborhoods, it became clear that while these were similar types of robberies, they weren’t all connected and were not committed by the same suspects.
The information that led the RHD detectives to come to this conclusion is based on the suspects that were apprehended or identified in certain cases. Not all of the suspects had the same gang affiliations or were part of the same ethnic groups. Of the 110 cases that are being monitored, in 107 of the cases, the suspects are identified as Black and male and, in three of the cases, the suspects have been identified as being Hispanic and male.
RHD detectives have taken over the investigations of several series of “follow home” robberies and during their investigation have identified six different street gang affiliations among the suspects. The detectives believe that this is an ongoing robbery trend, similar to the Knock Knock burglary trend that has been going on for the last few years that also had different gangs or crews committing a similar type of crime.
Anyone who has information about any “follow home” robberies that have been committed in Los Angeles should call The Robbery Homicide Division at (213) 486-6840. Outside of regular business hours, on weekends or at night, calls should be made to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (1-877-527-3247). If you have information, but wish to remain anonymous, you can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477) or leave an anonymous tip online here.
