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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Advertisement The same technology has allowed police to identify suspects in smash-and-grab retail burglaries.
    Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 7 May 2024

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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