Thieves Smash Through Nordstrom Window At The Grove

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Thieves shattered a plate glass window at the Nordstrom store, just hours after thousands flocked to the Grove for the shopping center's annual Christmas lighting event.

The burglary was reported at about 4:45 a.m. at The Grove, where Los Angeles police found a shattered plate glass window and discarded black clothes on the ground beneath the window.

Witnesses told police they saw as many as six men in masks use a sledgehammer to break the window, ran inside and grabbed men's clothes and accessories.

The men took off in five different cars, and were last seen speeding away on 3rd Street.

There's been a spate of similar burglaries at high-end clothing stores in the West Los Angeles area this year. In October, a group of burglars also used a sledgehammer to smash into a Fairfax boutique called The Cool. Two weeks later, break-ins reported at a West LA Baskin-Robbins shop and a pizza parlor were committed by suspects using an ax who fled both scenes in two cars. In May, burglars removed a plate glass window from a Saks Fifth Avenue on Wilshire to get in and left smashed-in, empty jewelry cases behind at the scene.