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12/20/2003: "21 Jump Street 2003"

So I'm walking up to the front doors of my local Tower Records (Northridge, CA) the other night to do a little xmas shopping. As I approach, I notice a few shady looking young folks hanging out (loitering) against the wall and I'm thinking to myself, these kids look like they're up to no good, when all of a sudden a few other kids walk out the door. The first thing I hear, and I'm paraphrasing here, is "hold it right there, put your hands behind your back" and just then one of the kids exiting the store makes a run for it and is immediately tackled by a couple of the young loiterers. One of the other kids is now facing the wall as he is getting the cuffs put on him. I hear him say that he doesn't have anything on him. During the incident that took about 4 or 5 seconds total, I was slowly (relative to 4 or 5 seconds) realizing that the loiterers were young cops waiting outside for shoplifters to leave the store. I guess they had people inside with radios giving them the info on who to bust as they exited. I entered the store and was standing next to a display up front when they all came in and walked passed me. As they did, the first guy in cuffs drops a DVD right at my feet. The cops look at each other and the second cop picks it up. Wow! Now how's that for a little holiday shopping excitement?