Best Buy Burglars Take Big Bite Of Apple Inventory
CHICAGO (CBS) – Several thieves broke into a Best Buy store near Bucktown over the weekend and made off with tens of thousands of dollars of electronic equipment, mostly Apple products, police said.
At the front door, it appeared pretty much business as usual Monday at the Best Buy store at 2100 N. Elston Ave. Around back, it was a different story, CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports.
Police say burglars rammed the overhead door with a van and threw garbage cans at it to knock it off its tracks. The door was left in a crumpled heap.
The nine-man crew took plenty from an inventory storage area just inside door and made their way onto the selling floor as well. How bad was the loss?
Officially, police say a preliminary report shows 60 iPads, 11 Apple laptops and 10 GPS devices were stolen from the store at an estimated value of $42,000.
Sources tell CBS 2 the take was much bigger: 300 to 400 iPads, with a combined value of about $200,000.
Security cameras captured images of the burglary, and yielded a big clue.
The truck was marked with the logo of Calumet Photo, an international supply outfit with a Chicago store less than two miles away from the burglary.
Blakley went to talk with store management, who said they got rid of the van some time ago.
Best Buy would not let CBS 2 see the video. But an investigator said police couldn't make out the license plate on the burglars' van.
He couldn't believe an electronics company didn't have better electronics to take surveillance video.
Detectives are speculating that whoever pulled off this job knew the store very well, and could be former employees.
