A burglar in California was caught on camera shattering a surf shop’s glass and taking surfboards, which he then placed into his BMW and left one of sticking out through the sunroof.
The bizarre robbery took place at the African surf shop Mami Wata in the Venice Beach district of Los Angeles. The robber used a crowbar to smash the glass before breaking in and taking everything inside.
The robber is seen moving back and forth between the shop and his vehicle, which has the trunk open, in a video of the event that was captured and shared on Instagram.
At one point in the video, the individual recording attempts to get a shot of the man’s license plate, but it is obviously a novelty fake that says “Los Angeles” rather than a legitimate license plate number.
The thief shouts angrily, “Don’t touch my vehicle,” as the videographer approaches the scene of the crime. The guy operating the camera grins and adds, “How you doing, bro?”
The robber threatened the cameraman before breaking the store’s front window and leaping out with a red, white, and blue surfboard.
The business sells a wide range of goods, including expensive surfboards that start at $1,800 and t-shirts that cost $70, which may help to explain why the burglar chose the location.
Data from the LAPD show that burglaries have increased in the city by 14.9% since last year, clearly indicating a rise in crimes against business owners.
Normally, surfboards cost $400 to $600 at other shops, but Mami Wata’s boards are more expensive due to their complex patterns and superior craftsmanship.
Selema Masekela, an American TV broadcaster and sports pundit, co-founded Mami Wata, which claims to be the nation’s first African surf store.
Masekela founded the business after encountering prejudice when working at a surf shop in California where he was dismissed because the proprietor said that his race “didn’t match the criteria of a surf shop.”
The ardent surfer claimed to have created the shop “to be able to have Africa into the discussion, so to speak, in what surf culture looks like” in an interview with Spectrum News earlier this year.
Although just 8% of the cotton in the world is from Africa, the business aims to use it in as many of its items as it can.
According to him, “our shop and our products are a chance to engage a bigger, more contemporary debate about Africa as a continent, and not a nation.”
Masekela’s father, renowned musician Hugh Masekela, is the reason why he feels especially attached to his African background.
The late Masekela is hailed as the pioneer of South African jazz for penning songs like “Soweto Blues” and is widely known for being an anti-apartheid campaigner.
Selema told the Hollywood Reporter about his father, “Before my father went, the main message he was trying to impart with the world and especially with Africans was to take pride in the wonder of the nation and the variety of the continent.”