Tennessee shoppers trap looting gang inside store as they wait for cops to arrive

A day of shopping for customers at Tanger Outlets Nashville went wrong after a group of robbers broke into a perfume store.

a TikTok user (@ptodropout) posted video obtained by WSMV4 of four persons who robbed Perfumania in the shops in Antioch on June 2.

A security guard and several customers held the door shut while the incident occurred, locking the thieves inside while they waited for police.

But the robbers were able to escape by forcing their way through a back door before police arrived.

Four thieves attempted to rob Perfumania at the Tanger Outlets Nashville in Antioch on June 2, after attempting to shoplift from the store earlier that week

Preston, the TikToker’s son and one of the witnesses, told WSMV4 that just before the incident began, he heard an employee yelling, “You guys shouldn’t be here.”

“I turned around and saw three or four people coming in wearing masks and hoodies,” he told the news station.

‘I’ve never seen it happen before, so I was a bit in shock. I just did what I thought I had to do,” Preston said.

‘[They were] Trying to run around the store, breaking into the cash register, breaking the glass, taking all the cologne off the shelves and all that.”

Witnesses said they were unsure if the four were armed, but believed they were between 16 and 20 years old.

The TikToker, who captured almost all events on camera, writes in the video that it “took 30 minutes” before the police arrived on the scene.

One of the thieves who intended to run out the door immediately turned around and ran back to the cash register.

The customers who kept the door closed began to question the police officers’ response time, with more than one person saying the police’s arrival “took forever.”

Shoppers kept their doors closed as they waited for police to arrive. The robbers were initially trapped in the house, but eventually managed to escape through an emergency door

Preston, one of the witnesses, told WSMV4 he was in shock. His mother recorded the ordeal and posted the video on TikTok after the attempted robbery

One of the robbers grabbed a small ladder and tried to break open the emergency exit door.

They managed to open the door and, according to Preston, security guards told him that all four thieves jumped a fence and ran to Interstate 24.

WSVM4 obtained footage from I-24 as of 3 p.m., which shows three of the suspects sprinting along the side of the road.

They eventually jumped into one of the lanes and stopped a car, which they used as their final and successful escape action.

Metropolitan Nashville police told WSMV4 on June 3 that no incident report was filed and that they were initially called to police for a fight in progress.

This incident is one of several robberies at Tanger Outlets Nashville, which opened in Antioch less than a year ago.

Three of the four thieves were spotted on the side of the road on I-24 before stopping the car and fleeing the scene

Shoplifting incidents have been a regular occurrence at the Tanger Outlets Nashville since November 2023. The outlet mall first opened in October last year

Shoplifting incidents at Tanger Outlets Nashville began less than a month after the mall opened on October 27, 2023.

The police told me FOX 17 News in November that shoplifters had stolen thousands of dollars worth of Michael Kors jackets, but they had obtained security footage of the incident.

The points of sale have been released a statement on social media after the weekend robbery on November 16.

“Safety programs at the center include measures that are both visible and invisible, and all efforts are supported by local law enforcement,” the report said.

“Tanger has a zero-tolerance policy, which is also enforced by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.”

Preston also mentioned shoppers’ concerns about who he was with during the attempted Perfumania robbery on June 2.

‘She [shoppers and store owners] said this happened a lot in their area, like in that mall,” he told WSMV4.

‘The other people seemed very upset about it because they live nearby. They’re just angry that it happens so often.