King of Prussia Mall Theft: Parking Lot Thieves Steal $ 18,000 In Goods From High-End Vacation Buyers

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (WPVI) – A pair of bandits grabbed more than $ 18,000 in merchandise from the King of Prussia Mall parking lot last month, police say, although parking thieves are not new , thieves of this magnitude are, and the high-end heist raises questions if there was adequate security.
Bill Phillips said he and his girlfriend had just finished upscale shopping when the incident happened. “We were at Louis Vuitton, David Yurman jewelers, Hermes,” Phillips said.

With their hands full of Christmas presents, the two men left the King of Prussia Mall at the exit of the Nordstrom to deposit their items in the backseat of their SUV.

Phillips said they returned to the mall for a bite to eat and less than 20 minutes later got a call from his office.

“Saying, ‘Are you at the mall? I said, ‘Yeah, I’m here right now.’ They said, “Better go back to your car. Someone broke into your car and stole everything, “” said Phillips.

Two witnesses told police two women pulled up to Phillips’ SUV with a bat or hammer, smashed his rear window and left with the loot.

“In about a minute or a minute and a half, they were gone,” Phillips said.

Witnesses said the thieves had their license plates covered.

Phillips said what was even more troubling was that surveillance cameras at the mall did not detect the crime, even the one that was right above his vehicle.

“They said it was pointing to the elevator coming out of the lower level because they were having issues there, but the main parking lot up there doesn’t have any cameras at all,” Phillips said.

A glance at the parking lot appears to show four surveillance cameras. We wanted to know how no one captured the crime.

The Simon Group, which owns the mall, made no comment when Action News insisted on getting answers to the investigation and whether the mall was under sufficient surveillance at present.

Upper Merion police said it was not clear whether the criminals followed Phillips and his girlfriend out of the KOP mall or watched them in the parking lot.

Investigators said they had no leads.

“The vehicle was parked in an area that did not have very good surveillance footage,” Lt. Jeffery Maurer said. “But we’re trying to go back to see where our victims were coming from in the mall. ”

Phillips said he was working with his credit card companies to get reimbursed for some of his luxury items.

” That’s a lot of money. Unfortunately, I really didn’t hear anything from the mall. I didn’t hear anything from the police, ”Phillips said.

Upper Merion Police said they are stepping up their patrols during the holidays, but people need to do their part and be aware of their surroundings.