A few West Seattle stores are warning other businesses to be on the lookout for a large group of shoplifters — including children — who ransacked their stores earlier this week.
“They all came in at once and the kids started picking things up off the table, taking things outside and walking around with them,” said Alyssa Kaliszewski, co-owner of vintage clothing store Doll Parts Collective.
She said a large group of people – two to three women with several children – came into her store Thursday afternoon.
And almost immediately, she noticed their strange behavior.
“They all bombarded me with questions at the same time,” Kaliszewski said.
She showed security video from KIRO 7, saying, “You can see it’s very orchestrated. They’re literally pinning me between a support and aggressively holding objects very close to my face so I can’t see what’s going on behind them.”
The store owner said the group stayed for about five minutes, but she managed to gather just about everything the group tried to take.
Then she noticed someone had gone through her bag.
“I had my wallet, you know, my medications… they went through it,” Kaliszewski said.
She posted photos online, then heard from My Three Little Birds, a nearby children’s consignment store.
Manager Kiki Elbel says the same group came to the store the same afternoon.
“It was really loud and rowdy. They all scattered and the kids started taking things off the shelves and taking apart packages. The women were asking these kinds of questions and trying to kind of distract me and my other employee while we were helping other customers,” Elbel said. “It really felt like organized chaos.”
She says the group stole hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise.
“It was a real shock, I felt sick to my stomach thinking that children were also involved in this,” Elbel said.
