LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thieves surrounded Los Angeles Dodgers beginning pitcher Walker Buehler final month outdoors a horse racing observe in a Los Angeles suburb and ripped an costly watch off his arm, police stated Tuesday. It was the second time this yr skilled athletes in California have been mugged.

Buehler was not threatened in the course of the mugging Sept. 28 on the Santa Anita Park horse racing observe in Arcadia, police there stated. They’re investigating two related episodes the identical day that officers say had been by organized teams who steal high-end watches in massive crowds throughout occasions.

The theft got here days after Buehler’s final regular-season recreation and every week earlier than the Dodgers started the Nationwide League Divisional Sequence in opposition to the San Diego Padres on Saturday. Buehler is slated to start out Sport 3 of the sequence in opposition to the Padres on Tuesday evening in San Diego.

On Aug. 31, San Francisco 49ers rookie Ricky Pearsall was strolling alone to his automobile after procuring at luxurious shops in San Francisco’s Union Sq. when the NFL participant was robbed at gunpoint by a young person who took his Rolex watch and different costly jewellery, prosecutors stated.

A battle ensued, and gunfire from the teenager struck each Pearsall and the suspect, who was shot within the arm. Pearsall was shot via the chest at shut vary, officers stated. His mom, Erin Pearsall, posted on social media that the bullet went via the correct aspect of her son’s chest and out his again with out placing very important organs. He was launched from the hospital a day later.

Smash-and-grab thefts have been captured on movies in cities from Los Angeles to San Francisco and gone viral, feeding widespread concern about crime within the state. Voters will resolve on a poll measure that will roll again elements of a 2014 regulation that made many nonviolent thefts misdemeanors as a substitute of felonies.