Three shoplifters were seen grabbing as much as they could carry as they stole items off the shelves, including from behind the counter, at a San Francisco Walgreens Pharmacy.
The brazen act was all caught on camera as the clerk could do nothing but watch as the trio simply snatched whatever they could, as quickly as possible, with nobody around to stop them.
The shop attendant could be heard on the radio calling out 'code 99 in aisle one', shorthand for a robbery in progress.
A trio of thieves in San Francisco could be seen filling their bags before emptying the shelves at a Walgreens pharmacy taking whatever they wanted
One pair of women even went behind the counter to steal nicotine patches
After the women finished behind the counter, they ventured into the rest of the store to steal
In footage posted to Reddit, it could be seen how two of the perpetrators were women while the third suspect was a man.
One of the participants could be seen in the restricted area behind the cash register as she grabbed what appeared to be nicotine patches and Nicorette gum from the shelves.
The other pair were seen filling bags that were worn over their shoulders before racing out of the store.
The trio's actions were all caught on cellphone camera as fellow shoppers looked on
The threesome walked out of the store unhindered and left to make their getaway
Shoppers could do nothing but stand around in disbelief as the team simply filled their bags before making a clean getaway.
On the way out of the door, the shop associate called out 'Get a job!'
'F**k you you piece of s**t!' came the response as the male robber run out the door.
It is the latest in a string of shocking shoplifting outrages to hit the famously liberal Bay Area.
Last month a man was seen stuffing everything from gift cards to batteries into his suitcase
Last month a man was seeing cruising the ailes of a CVS Pharmacy also in San Francisco stuffing items into a rollaboard suitcase.
The frustration was felt by viewers of the video online.
'Some people will do what they can get away with. Does raise the question: how much theft can a store absorb and still stay open?' asked one user.
'The only occasion these people will be willing to wear their masks,' added another
'I wasn’t even physically there and I feel very awkward,' wrote one Redditor.
'In SF there's zero risk of going to jail or even being put on probation. The DA can not prosecute any thefts under $950, and even if it goes above that the DA in SF doesn't care,' explained one viewer.
A bottle of soda was the final item to catch the man's eye. Stealing is thirsty work!
Crime in San Francisco has been climbing steadily, with larceny theft among the most committed offenses
The scene is similar to those seen across the country from New York to Los Angeles and beyond, with thieves undeterred as they take whatever they like from the shelves.
But San Francisco and its Bay Area neighbors have been hit hard by a wave of property crimes and smash-and-grab robberies since the start of the pandemic.
Lax bail reform laws in often-liberal cities mean there is virtually no penalty for the thieves who carry out the crimes.
Without any threat of a jail sentence, the crooks are released back out onto the streets and able to reoffend - often on the same day of their original arrest.
Eighty looters ransacked a luxury Nordstrom store in California's Bay Area in a November 2021 raid that lasted less than a minute
Earlier in the year, the West Coast was the scene of a spate of high-end luxury robberies with thieves targeting boutiques where designer goods were sold.
It even involved getaway drivers waiting outside department stores while their accomplices pulled what they could from the shelves inside.
The pharmacy robberies are a much lower-end version of the heists but ultimately it is the consumer that ends up paying with stores forced to increase their prices due to inventory constantly being stolen and shoplifted from their own stores.
The video is also extremely similar to those which have been shot in the past and see thieves lining their pockets with whatever they desire with no resistance from either store staff or fellow shoppers whatsoever.
According to the latest available crime data, grand larceny rates in California's liberal bastion were up 26 per cent in mid-April, compared with the same period last year
Liberal San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, whose soft-on-crime policies have been blamed for San Francisco's soaring crime rates, is facing a recall vote in June
Drug store chains like Walgreens and CVS have become attractive and easy targets for shoplifters, leading to numerous store closures in the Bay Area. In the area's largest city, San Francisco, low-level offenses, such as retail thefts, have been effectively de-criminalized under the leadership of progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Boudin, who in a recent interview with the New York Times argued that tough-on-crime policies do not work and blamed the police for the San Francisco's soaring crime rates, is facing a recall vote on June 7.
Walgreens said last year that retail theft in San Francisco was five times the chain average and security costs were 46 times the chain average, reported San Francisco Chronicle.
According to the latest available crime data, grand larceny rates in California's liberal bastion were up 26 per cent in mid-April, compared with the same period last year.
California Gov Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has vowed to crack down on gangs of retail thieves, despite a controversial 2014 law - Proposition 47 - that barred prosecutors from charging suspected shoplifters accused of stealing less than $950 worth of merchandise with felonies.
Walgreens has already closed at 17 of its 70 San Francisco stores because of constant shoplifting. One of the stores closing, pictured above, was subject of a viral video showing a man filling a garbage bag full of goods as security guards watched and let him go
Similar thefts have been taking place across the country in New York withthieves hitting the same Upper East Side Rite Aid for months, forcing it to close.
A Rite Aid store, located at the corner of 80th Street and 2nd Avenue, in one of New York City's wealthiest neighborhoods, shut its doors for good on February 15 a day after a thief was caught on video boldly sauntering out with shopping bags full of stolen goods.
The Rite Aid's closure is just one of many in the city. On February 8, a Hell's Kitchen store which had been rife with robberies also closed.
On the Upper West Side, another store which experienced daily thefts shut down last November.
The chain announced last year that it was shutting down about 63 stores across the US in the next few years, citing cost-cutting measures to save $25 million a year - but workers say that the thefts are part of the reason for the closures as inventory dwindles.
Footage was posted of a thief going for a shoplifting spree in NYC earlier in the year
Shelves were bare in the run up to the closure of the Rite Aid on New York's Upper East Side
