Buffalo police investigate looting after winter storm freezes northwest New York

Buffalo, New York, police have arrested eight people for looting several stores following a deadly winter storm in western New York over Christmas weekend.

Videos posted by the department’s anti-looting detail on Tuesday show the aftermath of the stores getting ransacked, with boxes all over the place, shelves emptied and shoes plundered from a stockroom.

Alarms can be heard going off in most of the videos as the person shooting the footage captures the damage that was done in the stores.

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Looters did not appear to leave anything untouched.

Refrigerator shelves were naked of drinks, clothes were ripped off racks and strewn all over the floor, gift card racks were mostly stripped clean and boxes of shoes were cleaned out and left emptied.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia acknowledged during a press conference on Monday that officers had responded to several reports of looting and that arrests had been made.

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“People who are out looting when people are losing their lives in this harsh winter storm is just absolutely reprehensible,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said during the press conference. “I don’t know how these people can even live with themselves, how they can look at themselves in the mirror. They are the lowest of the low.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the department reported that eight individuals had been arrested in connection with winter storm business break-ins.

 

Buffalo police continue to investigate the looting incidents and ask anyone with information about the looting to call a confidential tip line at 716-847-2255.

The historic blizzard dropped feet of snow in western New York over Christmas weekend and has led to at least 28 deaths.