Los Angeles woke up to quite the mess early Saturday morning after two separate street takeovers left a car burning in an intersection and an AutoZone ransacked. The back-to-back incidents happened about two and a half hours apart, one in East Los Angeles and the other in the Gramercy Park neighborhood, according to officials and KTLA reporting. Authorities have not said whether the two events were connected.
Street takeovers are illegal gatherings where drivers block intersections to perform donuts, burnouts, and other stunts while crowds gather to watch and record videos. In some cases, the gatherings can escalate beyond the driving itself. Early Saturday, one incident was followed by the looting of an AutoZone, while participants at a separate takeover were reportedly setting off fireworks, according to the New York Post.
The first incident unfolded around 2:20 a.m. near Olympic and Atlantic boulevards, where Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded to a break-in at an AutoZone located at 1131 S. Atlantic Blvd. Video from the scene showed a shattered glass door and merchandise scattered throughout the store. According to the New York Post, a video stringer at the scene estimated that more than $50,000 worth of tools, car batteries, other merchandise, and three cash registers were stolen…