Chicago smoke shop burglarized for 8th time since July
CHICAGO (CBS) — A smoke shop in Ukrainian Village was broken into on Monday for the eighth time since July.
Surveillance video from "Blaze Chicago" shows the suspects breaking the business's glass door with a sledgehammer in the 1100 block of North Western Avenue.
The suspects entered the store and left in a black car parked at the curb. The door and window were still boarded up from a recently reported break-in.
The owner said it's becoming routine to clean up his shop first thing in the morning after burglars leave behind piles of broken glass.
"We had a bunch of kids come here with stolen cars, masked up, gloves on everything, broke the glass, and came in like it was normal to them," said Al Hurah.
The shop's surveillance video shows a crew smashing windows with what appears to be a yellow hammer around 3:40 a.m. Monday.
As they're breaking in, a dark SUV with its doors open pulls closer; a different angle shows the moment the suspects come in through the front window, stepping over the couch and broken glass. They got away with some merchandise off the shelves.
"Breaking the glass, the boards, and everything like that is way more expensive than the product or the stuff they're stealing," he said.
The owner showed CBS Chicago the alerts he gets on his phone every time a burglar alarm goes off at his shop. At least eight notifications in the past three months, many of them just days apart.
"Cops don't come over here til its all done. There's nothing you can really do, honestly," Hurah said.
It's the same story, a little over a mile away on Western and Charleston.
Just 10 minutes after Blaze Chicago was hit, Saint Lucia's Smoke Shop and Cigars had its window smashed. The owner said the teens tried to get into their cash register but only took some cigar wraps.The owner said the teens aren't stealing things to sell.
Police have not confirmed if the two burglaries are connected.