How to Use smash-and-grab in a Sentence

smash-and-grab

adjective
  • Most smash-and-grab thieves aren’t going to take the time to try and cut it loose.
    Travis Smola, Field & Stream, 13 Mar. 2023
  • Todd Spitzer has scheduled to discuss smash-and-grab crimes.
    Gabriel San Román, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2023
  • This isn’t the first smash-and-grab theft to strike a Gucci store in California this summer.
    Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 3 Aug. 2023
  • Yet residents and businesses are on edge with smash-and-grab thefts.
    Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 1 Mar. 2024
  • The first smash-and-grab robbery occurred Dec. 24 at the jewelry store, according to the news release.
    Rosalio Ahumada, Sacramento Bee, 10 May 2024
  • However street crimes, such as smash-and-grab raids on stores, home robberies and carjackings, have spiked.
    Dan Walters, The Mercury News, 13 June 2024
  • Commercial robbery, which includes thefts in which force is used or threatened (like some smash-and-grab thefts), was up about 13% in that same time frame.
    Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2023
  • The video and information about the June 15 smash-and-grab theft was released on the department’s Facebook page Wednesday.
    Harry Harris, The Mercury News, 26 July 2024
  • Eleven people have been arrested so far in connection with a series of smash-and-grab thefts from gun stores in the Greater Cincinnati area.
    Cameron Knight, The Enquirer, 17 Sep. 2024
  • The actual robbers are realizing that what seemed like a low-stakes smash-and-grab has put a bounty on their heads as well.
    Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Sep. 2024
  • His opponents have blamed him for a rise in property crimes in some parts of the county, including a brazen smash-and-grab spree at luxury stores.
    Nicholas Riccardi, The Denver Post, 29 Feb. 2024
  • Overall crime rates in Los Angeles are down from last year, and a recent surge in smash-and-grab robberies makes up little of the overall problem of retail thefts.
    Richard Winton and Nathan Solis Los Angeles Times (tns), Arkansas Online, 17 Aug. 2023
  • Loading your audio article Police are looking for three suspects in a smash-and-grab burglary at a smoke shop in Wallingford on Friday.
    Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 5 July 2024
  • This ain’t a smash-and-grab type job ... we’re told some of the crews boosting LEGOs are now using counter-surveillance technology, plus getaway drivers and lookouts.
    Lawrence Hodge / Jalopnik, Quartz, 10 July 2024
  • But the issue has received more notice in the past few years as high-profile smash-and-grab retail thefts and flash mob robberies have garnered national media attention.
    Anne D'innocenzio, Fortune, 8 Dec. 2023
  • As retail stores face smash-and-grab invasions, Amazon’s online shopping is assailed by the government.
    WSJ, 29 Sep. 2023
  • Peña served nearly seven years in prison on charges related to a smash-and-grab scheme that included burglary, larceny and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
    Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Washington Post, 1 June 2023
  • Nine people have pleaded guilty to charges in connection to smash-and-grab robberies worth over $1.7 million throughout Southern California.
    Taylor Ardrey, USA TODAY, 31 July 2024
  • While shoplifting has been a growing problem, large-scale, smash-and-grab thefts, in which groups of individuals brazenly rush into stores and take goods in plain sight, have become a crisis in California and elsewhere in recent years.
    Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 17 Aug. 2024
  • California will spend $267 million to help dozens of local law enforcement agencies crack down on smash-and-grab robberies, The Associated Press reports.
    Soumya Karlamangla, New York Times, 18 Sep. 2023
  • Videos of brazen smash-and-grab looting operations, sometimes involving hundreds of masked individuals, appear in the news almost weekly, adding to the sense of lawlessness.
    The Week Staff, The Week, 2 Sep. 2023
  • Police are investigating a smash-and-grab burglary at a jewelry store in Westport on Thursday afternoon.
    Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 13 June 2024
  • According to the Chicago Police Department, the smash-and-grab thief broke into the popular makeup store at approximately 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
    Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Fox News, 15 Nov. 2023
  • Sunnyvale Police have arrested five suspects involved in a disturbing smash-and-grab robbery at a California jewelry store that was caught on video.
    Stepheny Price, Fox News, 18 June 2024
  • Whenever the nation faces a safety threat – e.g., a high-profile shooting, a wave of smash-and-grab robberies or an act of terrorism – the public clamors for action and politicians and police agencies respond with proposals to increase their power.
    Steven Greenhut, Orange County Register, 16 Feb. 2024
  • Sheriff’s detectives on Thursday arrested one person in a group of suspects accused of carrying out two smash-and-grab robberies several weeks apart at the same south Sacramento jewelry store.
    Rosalio Ahumada, Sacramento Bee, 10 May 2024
  • Dramatic video captures smash-and-grab jewelry robbery Nearly $2 million in jewelry was stolen in a California heist.
    Alexandra Banner, CNN, 21 June 2024
  • The difference that emerges between the two is Jack’s underdeveloped moral compass, which prompts him to push back — if not quite successfully — against Alejandro’s smash-and-grab criminal enterprises.
    Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 3 Sep. 2023
  • While shoplifting, employee theft or fraud, or one-off smash-and-grab burglaries, all contribute to the havoc, Bonta’s crackdown specifically adresses organized retail crime.
    Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz, 21 June 2023
  • This week, a committee of Sacramento lawmakers convened to discuss solutions for continued shoplifting, with some attributing smash-and-grab thefts to Proposition 47.
    Anthony De Leon, Los Angeles Times, 21 Dec. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'smash-and-grab.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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