A dark-colored Jeep tore into the front of a business in the 2300 block of North Clark Street just after 2:40 a.m. Saturday, and within moments thieves were climbing out to grab the store's ATM before speeding off in a separate getaway car. The crash left the storefront damaged, though no injuries were reported.
According to ABC7 Chicago, the thieves exited the dark-colored Jeep, stole the machine and fled in another vehicle, leaving area detectives to piece together what happened. Authorities had not released additional details on the case as of the station's report, and no suspect descriptions or vehicle information beyond the Jeep have been made public.
The Lincoln Park hit lands in a stretch of North Clark Street that has drawn police attention before. The same station previously reported that two locations on that very block were targeted back on Jan. 12, when a group hit multiple businesses around 3 a.m. as part of a broader wave police described at the time.
A Pattern Police Have Flagged For Months
Chicago police have repeatedly warned about groups using force to break into stores and grab ATMs overnight. In an earlier alert tied to a North Side case, the station's report noted that four to seven suspects had been seen using chains to pull ATMs out of stores, with surveillance footage in one case showing five people breaking into New York Food Mart, hooking a chain to the machine, and dragging it away in a Jeep SUV.
That same alert stated that at least 11 businesses had been hit in a single month during that stretch. Separately, per CBS News Chicago, police said a group of four to five burglars broke into businesses eight times between Jan. 12 and Jan. 15 alone, stealing cash, registers, ATMs and merchandise using sledgehammers and crowbars to bust through glass doors and windows.
The Two-Vehicle Method Keeps Showing Up
The Lincoln Park incident follows a method that has repeated itself across the city this year: one vehicle crashes through the glass, and a second carries off the stolen cash machine. As Hoodline previously reported, a Sept. 1 spree hit at least 17 businesses, mainly on the North Side, in a single hour between 1:42 a.m. and 2:37 a.m.
That same report described four suspects driving a blue Jeep Grand Cherokee into an Avondale BP gas station to steal its ATM, and an SUV crashing into Soap Box Laundry around 2:05 a.m. the same morning, though thieves failed to remove that machine. On Aug. 27, the report noted, a gray Jeep destroyed a North Lawndale BP storefront before a second vehicle carried off the ATM, and on March 23 three suspects rammed a gray Jeep Grand Cherokee into the entrance of the Golden Apple Grill & Breakfast House in Lakeview before escaping in a waiting black SUV.
Other recent cases point to the same playbook. WGN-TV reported that a dark-colored SUV crashed into the front entrance of a Ukrainian Village Shell gas station just before 4 a.m., with several suspects going inside, stealing an ATM and fleeing in a second dark-colored SUV; that station noted no injuries were reported and the owner estimated damage in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In South Shore, a Jeep SUV crashed into the entrance of a gas station in the 6700 block of South Jefferey Boulevard around 5:17 a.m. on a Sunday, and multiple people ran out with the ATM before fleeing in a second SUV, with nobody in custody at the time of that report.
No arrests have been announced in connection with the Lincoln Park crash, and it remains unclear whether the case is linked to any of the earlier incidents. Area detectives continue to investigate.
