Calabasas is used to be a safe bubble. The Kardashian utopia where the biggest threat was Santa Ana winds, not a man walking up to a woman in the middle of a shopping center, pulling a semi-automatic handgun, and demanding her designer handbag.
But that’s exactly what independent news platform Royol News posted on Instagram reporting an incident Tuesday night in what is quickly looking like a string of armed robberies stretching from Calabasas Commons to Westlake Village, a pattern that’s becoming harder to dismiss as “isolated incidents”.
According to the report, the first robbery occurred at approximately 7:39 p.m. at the Calabasas Commons shopping center. A woman in her 40s was approached by a male suspect who allegedly pointed a black semi-automatic handgun at her and demanded her designer handbag, a Louis Vuitton purse then fled on foot through the parking lot heading westbound.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department describes the suspect as a Black male wearing all black clothing with long dreadlocks. Deputies from the Lost Hills Station responded quickly, searched the area, and still couldn’t locate the suspect.
The report notes similarities to a previous armed robbery that occurred on January 13, when another female victim was robbed of a designer handbag at gunpoint in the same general area. Deputies reportedly apprehended the suspect on foot near the intersection of Calabasas Road and Valley Circle Boulevard. Which raises the obvious question: if this crime has happened before, in the same area, targeting the same type of victim, for the same type of item, what exactly has changed since January 13 besides the suspect’s confidence?
Then, roughly an hour later at approximately 9:00 p.m., an attempted armed robbery was reported at the TJ Maxx near Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Lindero Canyon Road in Westlake Village. Another woman, another confrontation, another Black male suspect, this one wearing a mask, black clothing, and a beige hoodie, who allegedly attempted to rob her at gunpoint.
This time, the victim fought back in the only way she safely could. She began honking her car horn, creating noise, drawing attention, breaking the spell criminals rely on: quiet compliance. It worked. The suspect fled, entered a white sedan, and was last seen traveling on Thousand Oaks Boulevard. No injuries were reported.
LASD says it is unclear at this time if the cases are related. That line is supposed to be measured. Responsible. Neutral. But in reality, it reads like a reflexive attempt to soften the implications. Two incidents in one night, in neighboring areas, involving a gun, targeting women, occurring in retail environments, with overlapping suspect descriptions. At what point does “unclear” stop being cautious and start becoming denial?
Because whether LASD wants to connect the dots publicly or not, residents are already doing it privately. They’re watching a pattern form in real time. Not just a crime problem, an audacity problem. A predator operating with enough confidence to strike in upscale shopping centers, then strike again within the hour, then slip away without consequence.
This is how crime metastasizes into normalcy. Not through one sensational headline, but through repetition. Through the slow conditioning of the public to accept armed robbery as just another Tuesday night update, another Instagram post, another “suspect not located.”
And if you live in Calabasas or Westlake Village, the most chilling part isn’t what happened, it’s what it suggests. That whoever is doing this believes he can keep doing it. That the environment is permissive. That the odds of getting away clean are still high enough to justify pulling a gun for a handbag.
In Los Angeles County, that’s not paranoia. That’s pattern recognition.
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