SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio man claims he was seriously injured during a flash mob theft at Ross Dress For Less in 2022.
It is a crime where a group of people quickly grab stuff inside a store and run off. It grew in popularity across the country over the last several years.
One man filed a lawsuit on Friday against Ross Dress For Less for negligence and seeking anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million in damages.
According to the lawsuit, on March 20, 2022, Douglas Brodie was checking out at the Ross store off Austin Highway when a group of people ran off with stolen merchandise.
Brodie then claims as he was walking to the door to see what was happening, another person ran into him.
The suit states he fell backwards, slamming the back of his head on the concrete outside the store. The suit used the term “flash mob theft” to describe the incident.
Colton Daniels is an assistance professor of criminology at St. Mary’s University. He said most of the time no one gets hurt during these flash mob thefts.
“The purpose is not to injure someone, but inevitably accidents are going to happen,” Daniels said.
Daniels said this type of crime has become more popular because of social media.
“There is this belief which his partially true that the store is not really going to come after them,” Daniels said.
The lawsuit claimed Ross Dress For Less did not have enough security in place to prevent the theft from happening.
Trial lawyer, Tom Crosley, who is not associated with the lawsuit, said the case may be hard to prove.
“The Ross Dress For Less case is going to come down to, what did the store know when Mr. Douglas Brodie was injured?” Crosley said. “Did it have enough information based on the past that it should have known that Mr. Brodie and others like him were in danger simply by being in the store in the checkout line?”
Brodie’s attorney is arguing that Ross Dress For Less should have known there was going to be a flash mob theft.
“It’s difficult to imagine that the store knew or should have known that a flash mob would hit that day and that a patron in the store would be injured by somebody fleeing after having shoplifted somebody,” Crosley said.
KENS 5 has attempted to reach out to the attorney on the case and Ross Dress For Less and have not heard back.