Black Friday Deaths 2016: Car Theft Gets Added To List Of Felonies

As if Black Friday deaths in 2016 aren’t horrible enough, reports are now saying that car theft has been added to the list of felonies committed during this year’s frenzied shopping season.

Black Friday deaths in 2016 have amounted to two fatalities: one in Reno, Nevada, and the other in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

According to Kolo TV, the parking lot of a Walmart branch at East Second Street in Reno became a crime scene on Thanksgiving evening when a man was shot and killed due to a dispute over a parking spot.

Authorities say that a 33-year-old man was killed in the parking lot of a Walmart store adding to the list of Black Friday deaths 2016. Police said that they found the person who shot the man but they are only questioning him because, based on their preliminary reports, the incident may have been an act of self-defense.

According to Lt. Sean Garlock, the shooter tried to defend himself because the victim was hitting his car with a stick or metal bar. The police didn’t say if the altercation started somewhere else and ended in the parking space or if it started there, but they did say that they’re investigating the matter further to find out all the details.

The other person who was unfortunate to be part of the Black Friday deaths 2016 was a man from Atlantic City, New Jersey. A 21-year-old man was shot and killed in a parking lot near a Macy’s store in New Jersey and authorities are still investigating what the motive was for the shooting.

According to Slate, the 21-year-old man was accompanied by his 26-year-old brother who also suffered from gunshot wounds but survived the incident. The older brother was shot in the leg while they were hanging outside Hamilton Mall early Friday morning.

At the time, Macy’s was the only store open, which perhaps prompted the two brothers to start early and look for great deals on Black Friday. Unfortunately, it all ended in tragedy when the young man suffered a fatal gunshot wound from an unknown perpetrator.

Car theft adds to the list.

In addition to Black Friday deaths 2016, car theft has also made it to the list of felonies that often occur during this time of the year.

Actually, Black Friday is one of the seasons where car theft is rampant, and authorities say that the reason behind this is that car thieves rely on the carelessness of people too preoccupied with looking for great deals.

Most shoppers are adamant about getting the best items on sale during Black Friday and this kind of behavior often leads to negligence on other properties such as vehicles.

Black Friday shoppers often forget to lock their car doors when they’re too preoccupied with getting to the nearest store to beat out the other shoppers, and that’s when car thieves strike.

The New York Post spoke with Robert Sinclair Jr., a spokesman for AAA Northeast. He said that during Black Friday people get so caught up with shopping that they forget basic security measures such as locking car doors or even removing the car keys from the ignition.

Sinclair even said that he once saw several cars with the windows rolled down during Black Friday and for a car thief that’s basically an open invitation to take a vehicle for a spin.

Sinclair shared the statistics of car thefts in the previous year, and the details show that 2,244 vehicles were stolen during Black Friday, while on Thanksgiving only 1,653 cars were reported stolen.

But despite the alarming number of car thefts the New York Post says that it was lesser this year compared to 2015. During Black Friday 2016, 5,761 cars were reported stolen while in 2015 it amounted to 6,581.

[Featured Image by Donald Traill/AP Images for Macy’s]