A group of vandals ransacked a Wawa in Philadelphia on Saturday.
According to the reports, about 100 juveniles ransacked a Wawa in Philadelphia’s Mayfair section located on Roosevelt Boulevard at Tyson Avenue.
In the police report filed following the merciless incident, around 8:30 pm, a large group of young people stormed the convenience store, vandalizing and stealing while the store employees watched helplessly.
“There were approximately 50 to 100 people. The Wawa was completely sacked by the kids coming inside and destroying things, and thankfully there were no injuries to the Wawa, personnel, or to responding police.” Philadelphia Police Captain John J. Ryan said.
So a group of people just randomly decided to ransack a Wawa in Northeast Philly tonight.
pic.twitter.com/gspWgzGS42— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 25, 2022
At the time of writing, the authorities are currently working on identifying the juveniles involved in the incident, who they say are facing serious charges.
“The charges can include riot, criminal mischief, vandalism, theft, riot being a felony,” Ryan said.
Moreover, the Police also added that the mob came to Wawa from the Rolling Thunder Skating Center next door.
An employee also added that the mob broke store’s tables.
“After they roller skated, they started fighting inside the Rolling Thunder, after they went inside Rolling Thunder, they started fighting and going crazy in Wawa and throwing chips,” Rolling Thunder employee Latif Kelsey said in a statement.
Furthermore, when the police arrived, they broke up the crowd. However, the authorities were outnumbered and were unable to make any arrests.
“We have to be cautious because if we just had officers running in and just grabbing kids, we would be having a whole different conversation today. And then that’s the unfortunate piece,” Philadelphia Police First Deputy Commissioner John Stanford said in a statement.
According to the Detectives some of the kids involved were just 10 years old.
“Bottom line, we cannot have this type of behavior happening again, the business community doesn’t deserve that. The citizens of this city don’t deserve it,” Stanford added.
Following the incident, Wawa released an official statement, saying that they are working with the police to review in-store surveillance videos and implement deterrence measures.
The authorities are also asking residents who witnessed the crime or if they have any information about the incident or the identities of any of these individuals, to call police.
Meanwhile, the detectives working on the crime are also working on finding the owners of the vehicles, parked outside that had been damaged.
