Brazen thieves burglarize West Garfield Park business
CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - A business owner in West Garfield Park opened his store Wednesday morning to find his business had been ransacked late Tuesday night by a crew of thieves.
“It's a real devastating thing for me,” said Marlon Alston, who owns the PC Detectives computer and retail store on South Kostner.
He described how they broke in through a back upstairs window and then stole numerous electronics in a recording studio and work space on the second floor.
“Up here they took four computers, they took a projector, they took a safe, they took a 55" TV that was right here, they took a 40" TV,” Alston said.
And the thieves repeatedly tried to cover their tracks by cutting, or otherwise disabling nearly a dozen security cameras inside.
Once finished upstairs, the hooded burglars, who were captured on video during various phases of their crime, moved downstairs, busting through a wall to get into the store itself.
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Surveillance video showed two of the thieves actually coming through the wall. Once inside, they disabled more cameras and continued their crime.
“In this case we had three Macbook Pros, I had and iPad mini and I had two Samsung Galaxie tablets here,” Alston said, “They stole hundreds of dollars in lottery tickets.
The thieves also emptied the ATM in the store, and stole a safe behind the counter.
“I would say all together, I sustained losses roughly about $18-thousand dollars,” Alston said.
An outside camera captured the burglary crew hustling their stolen goods to a van waiting in the alley. Alston has insurance, but he feels betrayed having operated this store for more than eight years.
“In the meantime, I'm just sitting here trying to figure out, where do I go from here?” he said.
Chicago Police are investigating and have taken a copy of the video. One of the thieves left behind some clothing, which could give detectives some DNA. Alston hopes someone might recognize one of the burglars from the video and help police bring them to justice.