Man detained after allegedly stealing forklift and ramming an L.A. Apple store
In an incident that seemed pulled out of the “Grand Theft Auto” video game series, a man was detained Tuesday after allegedly taking a stolen forklift on a drive through downtown Los Angeles and crashing into multiple buildings, Los Angeles police said.
A portion of the incident was captured on video and tweeted.
Just after 6:50 p.m., a caller reported to police that a forklift had struck the Apple store in the Tower Theatre in the 800 block of South Broadway and fled the scene.
A group of at least nine men were seen on a video posted on Twitter sprinting out of the store around 3:10 p.m. Monday. The LAPD confirmed a robbery took place at a store at Westfield Century City mall.
In a video posted by @klotsson, the forklift can be seen driving on the sidewalk in front of the theater with its horn blaring. The person shooting the video sprints down the street, away from the forklift, but the vehicle can then be seen driving down 8th Street toward Hill Street.
A witness told police that they had seen a male suspect take the forklift from a work site.
The forklift crashed at least twice in the downtown area, police said, before the driver was detained just after 7 p.m. near Flower and 5th streets.
The extent of damage done during the incident was not immediately clear. The suspect’s identity was not released and no injuries were reported.
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