Are the days of the masked bandit finally ending?

the covid kid gang strikes again

LA boutique bans masks because thieves are using them to avoid identification

The owner of the boutique clothing store, Kitson, said he has noticed a "disturbing" trend of people using masks to avoid detection , according to FOX 11.

"The mask mandate may have begun as a health precaution but we believe it is now being used by some people for nefarious purposes. To that end, we enacted our own mandate of sorts," Fraser Ross said. "We do not allow the wearing of masks in the store during regular business hours. Those people who wish to wear masks are free to set up an appointment for a personal shopping experience or visit our website."

"Especially in the last few weeks, we've had multiple events where people have come in using masks and have chosen to steal or try to steal assets from our store which is very unfortunate. We definitely have security guards at all of our stores and we've installed high-security cameras, but [the mask] covers their face, the most important part of their face that we need to use when showing the police," Hemenway said.

I certainly wasn’t the only one to point this out here two years ago, when the otherwise useless masks first became ubiquitous. Even the Associated Press took notice:

Masks that have made criminals stand apart long before bandanna-wearing robbers knocked over stagecoaches in the Old West and ski-masked bandits held up banks now allow them to blend in like concerned accountants, nurses and store clerks trying to avoid a deadly virus.

“Criminals, they’re smart and this is a perfect opportunity for them to conceal themselves and blend right in,” said Richard Bell, police chief in the tiny Pennsylvania community of Frackville. He said he knows of seven recent armed robberies in the region where every suspect wore a mask.

Across the United States, masks have become more and more prevalent, first as a voluntary precaution and then as a requirement imposed by governmental agencies and businesses. And people with masks – as well as latex gloves – have found their way into more and more crime reports.

Just how many criminals are taking advantage of the pandemic to commit crimes is impossible to estimate, but law enforcement officials have no doubt the numbers are climbing. Reports are starting to pop up across the United States and in other parts of the world of crimes pulled off in no small part because so many of us are now wearing masks.

…. Before life in a pandemic, masked marauders had to free their faces immediately after leaving a bank or store to avoid suspicion once in the general public. But it came with the risk of being photographed and identified through omnipresent surveillance cameras and cellphones.

These days, they can keep the masks on and blend in easily with or without being “captured” in images.

It’s a real problem for clerks and tellers, such as Tiffany Becker, who manages a Valero convenience store in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, where a number of stores in the area have been robbed by mask-wearing gunmen recently.

“Before I would have called the police because having a mask wasn’t normal. Now it’s normal,” Becker said. “It’s scary because you can’t tell who is safe and who’s not.”

That was written in 2020; today, it’s easier to spot trouble, because anyone still wearing a mask into a store is either there to rob the place, or is a crazed, Biden supporting, wet-pantied vegan, and someone to be avoided at all cost.