CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Burglars use car to smash into shoe store in Gramercy Park

SOUTH LOS ANGELES - An investigation is underway in South Los Angeles Thursday after a group of around 10 people robbed a high-end shoe store and got away with around $20,000 worth of merchandise.

It happened around 3 a.m. at Rich LA Clothing and Sneakers in the Gramercy Park neighborhood. 

Surveillance video shows a blue car and a white Kia sedan pulling up into the parking lot at Century and Venice Boulevard. Several people are seen exiting that white car as it proceeds to crash into the front of that business, slamming through the metal fencing and glass windows. The group is then seen running into the business and grabbing sneakers and clothing. 

The store's owner, who did not want to be identified, voiced his frustration with the response from the Los Angeles Police Department.

"My alarm company called me…. I was like ‘yes, send police,’ and learned the police showed up after two hours," he said. "That's why I'm surprised. I have an alarm, they're supposed to come fast… like literally in ten minutes, and they never show up or anything like that."

The suspects were long gone by the time police arrived.

"Everything was gone. They of course they took everything and [were] gone," he said. 

The white Kia sedan used by the suspects was abandoned at the scene and towed away earlier this morning. 

The store owner says he doesn't think this will be covered under insurance and will have to take the loss for the stolen merchandise, adding that the store has only been open for about a month.

"We know the area is not too good. These guys moved in and we tried to warn them about it. But we didn’t expect someone to actually take a car and run into the building," said neighboring restaurant owner Phil Clovis.  

Clovis owns the Caribbean restaurant "Trinistyle Cuisine." He told FOX11 there have been as many as four smash-and-grab burglaries in the immediate area over the last month, but none he says were as dramatic or brazen as Thursday morning’s. 

The LAPD said it is investigating; further information on the suspects was not immediately released.  

No arrests have been made.