A white Jeep repeatedly slammed into a gas station business in the 400 block of East 87th Street in Chatham on Sunday, and four people jumped out of two vehicles before fleeing in a red Acura SUV, according to Chicago police. Investigators had not determined whether anything was actually taken from the store as of Sunday night.
Police say four people went into the gas station after the Jeep repeatedly rammed the storefront, then abandoned the battered Jeep at the scene and took off in the getaway Acura, according to ABC7 Chicago. Chicago police continue to investigate the incident, and no arrests have been announced.
A Pattern Stretching Across the South Side
The Chatham break-in is the latest in a string of nearly identical smash-and-grab jobs hitting Chicago storefronts this summer. Just one day earlier, on Saturday, a group crashed a dark Jeep into a BP gas station in West Englewood to steal an ATM before abandoning that vehicle and fleeing in a separate getaway car, as reported by FOX 32 Chicago. The West Englewood break-in happened at 7059 S. Ashland Ave., only a few miles from Sunday's Chatham incident.
The getaway vehicle in Chatham also echoes a late-July case downtown, when three thieves crashed a black SUV into a Loop sandwich shop, Americana Submarine on South Clark Street, stole an ATM, and fled in a white Acura MDX, per the same FOX 32 Chicago account. Similar crash-and-grab jobs have hit a Loop Circle K convenience store, where a four-person masked crew rammed an SUV into the 190 W. Madison Street location and escaped in a second waiting vehicle within seconds, as Hoodline previously reported, citing ABC7 Chicago. A Portage Park 7-Eleven in the 5600 block of West Irving Park Road was hit the same way in June, with a crew driving a dark Jeep into the store, removing the ATM, and leaving the crashed Jeep behind while fleeing in a second vehicle, according to CBS Chicago.
Burglaries Spiking Even as Other Crime Falls
The wave fits a citywide trend: nonresidential burglaries in Chicago surged 132% during the first half of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, and were up 434% compared to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, according to data from the Council on Criminal Justice. That spike stands out because homicides and other violent offenses actually declined in Chicago during the same stretch, making commercial break-ins one of the only crime categories moving sharply in the wrong direction.
Under Illinois law, commercial burglary involving a building is a Class 2 felony carrying 3 to 7 years in prison under 720 ILCS 5/19-1, and the offense is legally complete the moment someone enters with felonious intent — regardless of whether anything is actually stolen. That distinction matters in Chatham, where investigators have not yet said whether the suspects made off with cash, an ATM, or nothing at all.
Catching the culprits remains the harder problem. Statistical analysis of Chicago Police Department data reported by the Chicago Sun-Times found that only about 12% of reported crimes in the city result in arrests, with commercial burglaries among the toughest to solve unless suspects are caught in the act — a challenge compounded by the fast-moving, multi-vehicle tactics seen in these cases.
A Historic Corridor Under Pressure
Chatham has long served as a hub of Black-owned business and banking along commercial corridors like East 87th Street, though the area's business districts have faced elevated property crime and economic challenges in recent years, according to city planning documents and South Side Weekly. Neighborhood safety data from CrimeGrade.org puts Chatham's property crime rate at roughly 29.88 incidents per 1,000 residents annually, placing it in the 29th percentile for property safety nationwide.
The East 87th Street break-in falls within the jurisdiction of the Chicago Police Department's 6th District, headquartered at 7808 South Halsted Street and commanded by Commander Andre Poston. The district also covers neighboring Englewood and Roseland, both of which have seen similar ATM-theft attempts in recent months, including an August incident where Jeeps turned a Roseland gas station into what amounted to a drive-thru heist, as Hoodline reported at the time.
