[6] The looting began on 3 December in Cordoba, Argentina’s second-largest city, when the provincial police force went on strike.

Opportunistic members of the public "broke through shop windows and wrenched open doors to load up wheelbarrows and horse-drawn carriages with food, clothing and furniture".

[1][10] The Confederación Argentina de la Empresa and regional chambers of commerce estimated the losses at 568.450.000 Argentine pesos and 1.900 businesses were affected by looting.

[1] On November 14, the "preparatory phase" began through text messages from mobile phones, which activated the deliberation status of the entire police station.

It continued over the following days until Monday, December, 2, when protestors rushed the infantry guards, did not allow vehicles to enter and exit, and began a strike without any response from the government.

On social media, particularly on Facebook, youths posted photos of stolen goods on their profiles and shared details of how they were involved in the events.

[22] The governor Daniel Scioli was in Rio de Janeiro, where he had been invited to present at a meeting with former United States President Bill Clinton, but decided to return to La Plata to control the situation.

[23] Finally, on November 10, he announced that the initial salary for a police officer will be 8,570 pesos, successfully defusing the conflict with the provincial security force.

[27] The national government developed a plan to stop any eruptions and looting on December 19 and 20, when the anniversary of the 2001 crisis would occur.

It mainly included monitoring "risk zones" in the federal capital (where there had been no conflicts with the police) and the city of Buenos Aires.

Because of this, several shops announced that they will not open their doors that day, especially Chinese supermarkets (of which nearly 30 had already been looted around the country, while there were attempts at theft in the other 30)[28] and the presence of the military and federal police was increased.