Video shows thief ripping down and stealing gutters, downspouts on Chicago's Northwest Side
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Dozens of gutters and downspouts were ripped right off garages in a series of recent thefts on the city's Northwest Side.
Fed-up neighbors showed video to CBS 2, saying it has been happening since last week in their Belmont Cragin community.
With a noisy clank, the thieves tear the gutters and downspouts asunder from the garages. It has all been captured on camera several times in the neighborhood.
"I've just heard that this apparently has been happening - that's what the police told us," said Allison Connelly.
Connelly heard from police Monday morning. The videos from her neighbors show what happened.
"Apparently, there was somebody who just ripped the gutter right off the back of our garage," Connelly said. "There was a big hole there."
She had no idea of the damage until police knocked on her door around 4 a.m.
"They caught him right in the act," said Connelly. "They looked in his truck, and he had about 40 other ones in there too."
Police said a 40-year-old man was arrested in the thefts, and is now facing two misdemeanor charges.
The other gutters and downspouts are believed to have been stolen from the Hermosa and Belmont Cragin neighborhoods.
Victims shared several videos from Thursday in the wee hours of the morning – showing possibly the same man in a red Chevrolet pickup truck trying to avoid cameras before he begins hammering off downspouts.
It is something Connelly calls a very rare occurrence in her neighborhood.
"I feel absolutely safe," she said. "We're just missing a gutter. We'll have to replace it."
Connelly might want to do so as spring showers approach. But she and other victims are left wondering just the same what the 40-year-old suspected thief planned to do with the aluminum in the back of his pickup truck.
"I guess it's got value," she said. "I mean, it's got value to us – because we need it."
