L.A. Liquor Store Owner Dares to Stand Up to Gangs

The L.A. Times reports:

They would march into the liquor store like pirates ready to gorge on ill-gotten goods.

Ten times in the last month, the same group of robbers walked in and hauled away beer, chips and other food. Brandishing a knife, the robbers warned the store's owner: "We know where you live."


But the owner of the Washington Boulevard shop would not back down.

Instead, he installed video cameras around the store to capture images of the robbers. Then he roamed the neighborhood with the photos, getting their identities.

The culmination of his detective work came Monday night when undercover Los Angeles police officers watched as several of the young men walked out of the store with two cases of stolen beer. The detectives chased the men and arrested two of them.

In some parts of the country, the robbers would have bullets unloaded on their face.