Crash-and-grab burglaries have now hit four Chicago jewelry stores in four days, and the Chicago Police Department has put out a community warning. According to ABC7 Chicago, police say crews hit jewelry stores on the North and Northwest Sides on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week, in the Albany Park, Rogers Park, West Ridge and Avondale neighborhoods. Police haven’t released what was taken from each store or named any suspects.
The method was the same every time. Police say the thieves drove a vehicle through the front glass, went in and took merchandise, then left in a different vehicle. The timeline CPD released runs like this: 6900 block of North Clark Street in Rogers Park on Oct. 20 at 5:01 a.m.; 3000 block of North Milwaukee Avenue in Avondale on Oct. 22 at 5 a.m.; 2600 block of West Devon Avenue in West Ridge on Oct. 22 at 6:09 a.m.; and 4800 block of North Kedzie Avenue in Albany Park on Oct. 23 at 2:47 a.m. CBS News Chicago earlier identified the Rogers Park store as Fanny’s Jewelry and the Avondale store as Joyeria La Caridad, which was rammed with an Acura.
Here’s what bothers me about this one. Two stores in a little over an hour on the same morning, and four in four days, is not random. It’s a crew with a playbook, and that playbook is built to beat the usual defenses. A car through the glass makes your locks and laminated windows mostly irrelevant, and a second getaway vehicle means the car left at the scene tells police very little. The whole thing is over in minutes, long before most alarm responses arrive. And the cost runs well past the merchandise: the front of the store, boarded windows, days closed, and staff who don’t feel safe opening up…