In conventional business, there is retail, and there is wholesale. But sometimes retail can be wholesale, in an activity such as robbery, in which a holdup at a retail store stocked with smartphones may seem more of a wholesale operation than trying to take them on the street, one by one.
At any rate, a retail phone store on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, just beyond the eastern edge of Capitol Hill, was held up on Sunday, and available evidence indicated that a wholesale quantity of the devices was taken.
In an account provided later that day, police said that once inside the store in the 1300 block of Pennsylvania, one of the robbers “went to the storage room and loaded several boxes of cellular phones.”
The D.C. police posted video of the robbery on Monday. It shows someone going to a cabinet, and swiftly scooping out items by the handful. Into a large plastic trash bag they go.
In a later scene, the trashbag has been stuffed into a cardboard carton. One robber is carrying it. Within seconds, his confederate, making himself useful, and showing himself as resourceful, comes into view.
He brings with him a heavy duty trash receptacle, not more than perhaps three feet tall, but with wheels. The two robbers quickly cram their loot into it, and head for the door.
Some viewers of the surveillance footage might ALMOST be amused by the meticulous care with which the robbers carry out their tasks. When one or two of what appear to be phones or other valued items fall to the floor, the getaway is briefly interrupted. A robber carefully picks them up, before heading out.
Watching the video, in which the robbers move in that spasmodic fashion familiar from ancient motion pictures , might provide a hint of amusement.
But it is hard to sustain such a mood. According to a police account, after the robbers entered the store at about 11:45 a.m. they made it clear to those inside that they meant, it might be said business. Of a sort.
They ordered everyone onto the ground, the police said.
An employee is partially shown in the surveillance footage. The tension is not hard to recognize. The employee is lying flat on the floor, his legs together, and the soles of his shoes visible. He does not move.
