Chicago/ Crime & Emergencies
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Published on August 05, 2024
South Side Chicago Foot Locker Stores and Local Business Hit by Surge in Smash-and-Grab BurglariesSource: Google Street View

Chicago communities on the South Side are grappling with a spate of bold smash-and-grab thefts after two Foot Locker stores and a local clothing store were targeted. In the Englewood neighborhood, thieves used a black Dodge Durango to ram through the security door of a Foot Locker store in the 6900 block of South Ashland Avenue just before 4:30 a.m., as CBS News Chicago reported. The perpetrators seized merchandise before fleeing in two SUVs, marking this the second Foot Locker incident within days.

Another smash-and-grab burglary occurred in the Bronzeville neighborhood, where CBS News Chicago crews witnessed at least three individuals making off with shoe boxes and other goods from a Foot Locker store at approximately 6:40 a.m. The assailants crashed a Jeep into the store on the 3300 block of South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, prompting others from the vicinity to follow suit in the looting. Chicago police have not yet confirmed if the incidents are related, nor have any arrests been made in connection with the thefts.

Furthermore, a clothing store owned by Syed Gilani, J Bees, was the victim of a similar crime on 47th Street and Prairie Avenue. There, thieves used a chain with a Jeep to dismantle the security gate. Gilani, whose other store on 87th Street experienced vandalism merely days earlier, described the situation as "heartless." Gilani told ABC7 Chicago, "The same pattern, they're doing it, the same guys out there doing it."  He added, "Police are trying to catch them, eventually they will. But for the time being, I have to take a loss."