Thieves Target Cellphone Stores In Overnight Smash-And-Grabs
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police on Saturday were investigating smash-and-grab robberies at three cellphone stores – with two of them happening just 15 minutes apart.
As CBS 2's Vi Nguyen reported, police said the thieves covered their faces and used a brick to break through the front window of a T-Mobile store in the 3900 block of North Kimball Avenue in the Irving Park neighborhood around 9:45 p.m. Friday.
The suspects took numerous electronics worth an unknown dollar amount before taking off in a black Porsche Panamera they had parked next to the store, police said.
The window at the Kimball Avenue store was boarded up Saturday morning. It was not clear if the store would be open on Saturday.
Only 17 minutes earlier, a black Porsche Panamera was also spotted at the scene of another smash-and-grab at a cell phone store, this one in the 5700 block of West Belmont Avenue in the Belmont Cragin community.
Two people wearing white masks broke a side window with a brick and took numerous electronics, before fleeing in the Porsche that had likewise been parked next to the store, police said.
Descriptions for the suspects in those incidents are not available, since their faces were covered.
Detectives on Saturday were also investigating a third smash-and-grab incident in Greektown, which is not believed to be related to the incidents with the Porsche.
That incident happened around 10:15 p.m. Friday in the 0-99 block of South Halsted Street, police said.
Three men threw a rock through the window of a cellphone store and took numerous electronics before fleeing back out the window, police said.
Police apprehended one man after he and two others were seen in a vehicle that was spotted leaving the scene. The other two men in the car were released without charges, police said.