Five adults and three juveniles were arrested overnight Sunday after they looted the Walmart Supercenter in Greenacres, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.
PBSO said Monday the group appeared to be among the people whom authorities nationwide say are taking advantage of peaceful protests related to the death of George Floyd to stage crimes. Such protests happened Sunday night in West Palm Beach. At about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, PBSO said, it got a call that “a large mob” was looting the store, at Forest Hill Boulevard and Jog Road. PBSO is contracted by Greenacres.
A supervisor told arriving deputies that at about 11 p.m. a white vehicle had parked in front of the store, which was closed. Soon afterward, another vehicle drove by, and someone inside shouted, “It’s about to go down on Facebook Live.”
About one-half hour later, the supervisor told deputies, several vehicles pulled into the lot, and a large passenger van backed up to concrete blocks that protect the store’s front doors. The supervisor said he alerted the workers who still were in the store to lock themselves into the cash office. He said a large number of people then rushed the doors. One used a bar to pry the door open, while another tried to smash the glass door with a wrench.
The group got the door open and raced inside, taking women’s clothes, jewelry, infant items, shoes, bakery items and electronics, the report said. It said the group also damaged displays and demonstration electronics.
Deputies caught three people fleeing the store. They were Juan Castellon, 19, of suburban West Palm Beach, and a 17-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl. Those two are named in the report but The Palm Beach Post is not naming them because they are juveniles…Â The Palm Beach Post