Surveillance video captured two people breaking into Bottles and Cans Edgebrook overnight, smashing the glass door with a brick before running out with the store's cash register. The liquor store sits at 6401 N. Central Ave. in the Forest Glen neighborhood on Chicago's Northwest Side, and the footage shows the burglars moving quickly once they got inside.
The break-in, reported by CBS Chicago, adds Bottles and Cans to a growing list of Northwest Side businesses hit by overnight smash-and-grabs this month. Chicago police had not confirmed details of the incident as of the station's report. The outlet's footage shows the glass door giving way under the brick before one of the intruders disappears with the register in hand.
Part of a Wider Overnight Spree
The Edgebrook burglary landed in the middle of a busy stretch for Chicago's property crime units. At least six businesses across the city were burglarized overnight between October 12 and 13, including Dark Matter Coffee in Humboldt Park and several retail storefronts in Old Town, according to CBS News. In several of those incidents, intruders smashed glass storefront doors specifically to get at cash registers, the outlet reported.
Burglars shattered the storefront window at Nubar Cafe in nearby Albany Park and made off with its register overnight. Staff there swept up the glass and carried on with a scheduled first-anniversary celebration, as Hoodline reported in its own coverage of the Albany Park burglary.
The Store's Background
Owners Carly and Joe Katz opened the Edgebrook location in June 2021, according to Nadig Newspapers.
A Citywide Surge in Commercial Break-Ins
The timing fits a pattern crime researchers have been tracking all year. Nonresidential burglaries in Chicago jumped 132% in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period last year, and are up 434% from pre-pandemic 2019 levels, according to data from the Council on Criminal Justice released in late July. That surge stands out because most violent crime categories in the city actually declined over the same stretch, even as property crimes targeting storefronts spiked.
One suggested precaution for businesses is to keep properties well lit.
What Happens If Suspects Are Caught
If identified and charged, suspects in a case like this would likely face commercial burglary charges under Illinois law. Breaking into a business with intent to commit theft is classified as a Class 2 felony when property damage occurs, carrying a potential sentence of three to seven years in state prison and fines up to $25,000, according to Angelillo Law. Even so, Illinois' Pretrial Fairness Act generally does not require mandatory pretrial detention for non-residential burglary defendants at their first court appearance unless prosecutors specifically petition a judge with evidence meeting statutory criteria or prior release violations, as Hoodline detailed in its coverage of a related Loop burglary case this past August.
Whether detectives believe the Edgebrook burglary is connected to the broader wave of break-ins reported across the city that same week remains an open question, as does what additional security steps neighborhood business groups may push for in response.
