Burglars hit pizzeria in Lockport, Illinois, damage cash registers and gaming machines

Police in the southwest Chicago suburb of Lockport were investigating a crash-and-grab burglary at a pizzeria early Thursday.

Lockport police said at 2:10 a.m., they were called to Villa Nova Pizza, at 946 N. State St. in Lockport, for a burglar alarm going off. At the pizzeria, they found the window broken, and cash registers and video gambling machines damaged.

The perpetrators were gone by the time police arrived.

Surveillance video showed that at 2:05 a.m., five people wearing all black clothes and gloves and masks got out of a black sport-utility vehicle, broke the front window of the pizzeria, and went in. The video shows the burglars smashing open the video gambling machines with what appeared to be sledgehammers, crowbars, and pickaxes. 

"They actually left one back here. So they took it in for evidence. They bagged it. I guess it broke off when they hit one of our machines," said Dominique Surillo, whose family runs the business. "They were slamming our cash registers, breaking the ATMs, the gaming. They broke two of our windows."

The burglars got back in the SUV and fled three minutes later, police said.

The total loss to the pizzeria remained under investigation Thursday afternoon.

Surillo said their family built Villa Nova from the ground up.

"It's our second home. I mean, this is where our kids come, my nieces and nephews. This is this is our safe place, and it was violated," she said.

The owners tell said, once the suspects were inside the restaurant, they headed to the bar then to the video gambling area, where they destroyed three of the five machines. 

"It was gut-wrenching, honestly. We went through this once, and to go through it once, but to go through it twice again, it's terrible," Surillo said.

Last year, someone broke into the business and stole a register. Surillo said this break-in was much worse. 

"They smashed it in the parking lot. All of the registers were everywhere at that point," Surillo said.

Owners said support from the community goes a long way. 

"We've gotten tons of phone calls from lots of people. It just, it feels very good to have someone on your side," Surillo said.

Police said the incident might be related to a series of burglaries around the same time affecting at least five other municipalities. This is the first such burglary in Lockport.

The Will County Sheriff's office said there was a similar burglary at a restaurant in Frankfort within hours of the break-in at Villa Nova. The burglars also used sledgehammers in Frankfort.

Police said, earlier this week, multiple businesses in Homer Glen were also targeted.