Montgomery County police want the public to help identify about 30 people who robbed a 7-Eleven store in Germantown early Aug. 13, in what police described as a flash mob theft.

The department posted three videos to YouTube on Aug. 15 and the response so far has been tremendous, said spokesman Officer Howard Hersh. The videos had garnered almost 150,000 views by Tuesday afternoon.

“We’ve gotten help from a lot of different places,” said Capt. Luther Reynolds, commander of the department’s Fifth District, which is investigating the crime. “It’s been wonderful; the response from the community. There’s unilateral outrage at what occurred.”

Reynolds said at least 16 individuals, mostly minors, had been identified by tips from the public and help from nearby schools by Tuesday afternoon. “One by one, we’re identifying them,” Reynolds said. “There will be charges with time.”

He stressed that the department must be careful about releasing information because many of the suspects are juveniles.

No one had been arrested as of Tuesday, but investigators were still interviewing suspects, Reynolds said.

The department is using a form of social media to get to the bottom of the crime, and flash mobs typically are organized through social media, but police do not know if that is how this event was started.

“The use of social media, Facebook, text messaging, all of that is being looked at, but I can’t say that’s what happened definitively right now,” Reynolds said.

According to police, just before 2 a.m. Aug. 13, the group entered the convenience store at13001 Wisteria Drive, took food and drinks from shelves, then walked out about a minute later. The outnumbered store clerk could only activate a silent alarm to notify police.

A number of the thieves had been at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair earlier that night and took a bus together to the Germantown Transit Center. They walked to the 7-Eleven from there, Reynolds said.

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) issued a statement Aug. 17, saying the crime underscored the need for a juvenile curfew in the county.

“The incident, that occurred at 1:47 a.m., serves to illustrate why my recently proposed overnight curfew for juveniles under 18 years of age could enhance public safety throughout the county,” Leggett said.

Police are investigating how much merchandise was stolen. The department is working with the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office to determine what crimes the suspects should be charged with, Reynolds said.

A flash mob is an organized event where a group of people assemble to perform some sort of action in public, before quickly dispersing, according to the website Urban Dictionary, which describes itself as a cornucopia of streetwise lingo, posted and defined by its readers.

The surveillance video can be viewed on YouTube, titled “Police Investigate Germantown Flash Mob” with the username of mcpdmedia. Police ask anyone who has information about the robbery or recognizes someone in the video to contact police’s 5th District Investigative Section at 240-773-6200. Callers may remain anonymous.

dgaines@gazette.net