Six men have been charged after a bold daylight heist at a Rolex store located on the famed shopping strip of Chicago's Magnificent Mile, per announcements from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office reported by NBC Chicago and CBS Chicago. The group is accused of shattering display cases and pilfering over $170,000 in luxury watches.
According to authorities, on Friday afternoon the accused individuals, identified as Victory Banks, 33, Will Brown, 21, Aldonte Goodman, 22, Anthony Hampton, 24, Dalvin Johnson, 31, and Armon Williams, 18, descended on the store wielding hammers and smashed their way to the goods while a customer and employees barricaded themselves in protection, witnessing the crime through the lens of surveillance cameras, the suspects allegedly fled the scene in a car starting a high-speed chase along DuSable Lake Shore Drive then onto Interstate 94, resulting in a collision, a desperate foot pursuit, and finally, their apprehension. Charges leveled against the six include theft by unauthorized control of property exceeding $100,000 and $500,000, burglary, and criminal damage to property between $500 and $10,000.
The dramatic pursuit that unfolded post-robbery involved local law enforcement and a helicopter, which relayed the vehicle's location to officers on the ground; the suspects crashed their car near 51st Street after exiting the Interstate. They abandoned the vehicle following the crash, but were promptly captured, notes a statement from the prosecutor's office. In the aftermath of the chaos, police were able to recover four of the five stolen watches, amounting to a significant recovery of the stolen property.
All of the accused have since been ordered by a judge to remain in jail, with bail denied for each defendant the criminal proceedings have only just begun to unravel the full scope of the allegations against these men, while the investigation continues to piece together the events and motives leading up to the robbery at one of Chicago's high-end establishments.
