Not aware of this, the crowd got angrier and angrier that the store hadn’t opened, and by 1:15 a.m. they were so pissed that they broke down the doors and let themselves in! Once inside, the frenzied mob started grabbing whatever they wanted, and none of the store’s employees could stop them. One bystander described the chaotic scene:
They were throwing things around and throwing clothes on the floor. One kid, he was being really loud and crazy and gathered up all these clothes and ran out of the store and started giving them to his friends. They were really wild. There were a couple employees there [stocking shelves], and they were shouting at people, “Stop! You’re breaking and entering and breaking the law!” But the people looting just ignored them.
How any of the looters managed to find anything inside the darkness-soaked labyrinth that is a Hollister store remains a mystery.
Mob Looted SoHo Store On Violent Black Friday [New York Post]