LOS ANGELES—Five follow-home robberies were reported in Los Angeles in the last 48 hours, the Los Angeles Police Department told the city’s police commission Tuesday, marking an uptick in the trend that previously decreased by 78 percent in March compared to its peak in November.
The phenomenon—in which police say armed suspects follow victims from restaurants and shopping areas such as Melrose Avenue and the Jewelry District to rob them of jewelry, watches, or vehicles—was “almost unheard of” before last year, according to Capt. Jonathan Tippet, who leads the Follow Home Robbery Task Force created in November.
In September and October, the department’s Robbery-Homicide Division began noticing a pattern of increased robberies involving multiple vehicles and multiple armed suspects coordinating to rob people of high-end vehicles and jewelry, Tippet said.
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