A 53-year-old man was taken into custody after investigators say he stayed inside Macy's on State Street after closing, helped himself to food from a restaurant kitchen inside the store, and walked out before dawn wearing stolen clothes. Cook County prosecutors have charged him with burglary and felony retail theft.
According to the Cook County Sheriff's Office, Macy's first reported an overnight theft to the sheriff's Organized Retail Crime investigators on June 28, after security camera footage showed a man carrying a backpack had remained inside the store overnight. That footage reportedly captured the man leaving around 3:25 a.m. on June 29 with unpaid merchandise, and investigators say the same footage showed him taking food from the kitchen of a Macy's restaurant while he waited out the night undetected.
Investigators identified the man as Roy Pughsley, and Macy's staff later contacted them after spotting someone matching the overnight guest's description outside the store on August 3. Investigators stopped the man, noting he wore the same shoes and backpack seen in the surveillance footage, along with some of the apparel allegedly taken from the store. He was taken into custody that day, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office charged the 53-year-old with burglary and felony retail theft.
How Illinois Law Turns an Overnight Stay Into a Felony
Under Illinois statute 720 ILCS 5/19-1, burglary covers anyone who knowingly enters or remains inside a building without authority intending to commit a theft, a Class 2 felony carrying 3 to 7 years in prison, according to the Toney Law Firm. Notably, the law does not require forced entry — simply remaining past closing time can be enough to support the charge. Separately, retail theft of merchandise valued above $300 escalates from a misdemeanor to a Class 3 felony punishable by 2 to 5 years in prison under 720 ILCS 5/16-25, as detailed by the Law Office of Jack Zaremba. Prosecutors can also aggregate the value of merchandise taken across separate incidents at the same store within a one-year span to reach that $300 threshold, the same source notes. As with any defendant, Pughsley is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Court records reviewed by CWB Chicago show Pughsley has an extensive criminal history in Cook County. In March 2022, he was arrested and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon after allegedly stabbing a man with a box cutter inside a River North Walgreens; at the time, prosecutors noted he had prior felony convictions for being an armed habitual criminal in 2012 and weapon offenses in 2003, and that he was homeless and on probation. Separately, court records show that in April 2023, Pughsley filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Cook County Department of Corrections while in custody, alleging violations related to prison conditions.
Not the First Overnight Break-In at This Macy's
This is not the first time someone has allegedly holed up inside the historic State Street department store after hours. In February, Cook County Sheriff's Police charged two teenagers with burglary after they hid inside the same Macy's past closing on Feb. 1, looted merchandise, and were later spotted wearing stolen items — with one of the teens having sketched a layout map of the seven-floor store, as Hoodline reported in its Macy's sleepover heist coverage. Those juveniles were released to legal guardians after being charged.
The Macy's building at 111 N. State Street is itself a Chicago landmark. It occupies the former flagship Marshall Field and Company Building, designed by Daniel Burnham, which spans an entire city block in the Loop and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, per Wikipedia. The 14-story building was rebranded as Macy's in 2006 following corporate department store mergers.
Part of a Broader Crackdown on Retail Theft
The case is being handled by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's Organized Retail Crime Unit, created in 2023 to combat commercial burglaries, organized shoplifting networks, and high-value theft rings across Chicago and the county, according to FOX 32 Chicago. By early 2026, the unit had executed hundreds of operations, making more than 500 felony arrests and recovering over $5 million in stolen goods over a two-year span. The unit has been active in a string of recent cases, including charges tied to a Rush Street Lululemon return scam and a perfume-swap scheme investigated earlier this summer.
Illinois has also moved to strengthen the legal tools available for these prosecutions statewide. In May 2022, Governor JB Pritzker signed the Organized Retail Crime Act into law, creating dedicated statutory definitions and closing prosecution loopholes to help law enforcement pursue coordinated commercial theft cases, according to Illinois.gov. The legislation was drafted in partnership with the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and the Illinois Attorney General.
