Police: LA street gangs behind brazen ‘follow-home’ holdups

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police say street gangs are behind brazen robberies in which people are followed home from fancy locations, tackled and robbed of expensive watches, cars or other goods. The head of a “follow-home robbery” task force told the LA Police Commission on Tuesday that at least 17 gangs had staged robberies in which people were followed from fancy shops and restaurants in Hollywood or elsewhere, then held up at gunpoint, kicked, beaten or pistol-whipped. Two victims died. Capt. Jonathan Tippet says the task force has made several dozen arrests and the number of holdups generally has fallen. However, he also said there had been five such robberies in the past 48 hours.