Smash-And-Grab Burglars Hit Austin Shoe Store
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Three smash-and-grab burglars stole merchandise from an Austin neighborhood shoe store, after crashing a truck through a glass wall early Friday.
Inside the store, toppled displays, tee-shirts and jeans piled high and name brand shoes scattered across the floor. Grainy surveillance tape shows a gray Ford explorer in the middle of the store on the 1500 block of North Cicero Avenue around 3:45 a.m.
"I'm way frustrated. They ran into the store. They got a certain amount of minutes. They grab what they want and they're out," said store manager Johnny Johnson.
Frustrations are high because this store was hit just two months ago. And hit again last week. In fact, managers hadn't even had time to replace the glass. So this time thieves busted through the boarded up window.
"It's wrong. It's just stupid," said Johnson.
Police say a South Side Villa store was also the target of a smash and grab last night. Corporate managers say that makes seven incidents in the last 18 months in Villa stores across the Chicago region. They're they're taking action.
"We've been talking with corporate to make that a whole wall instead of glass. Maybe that will deter it. But something has to be done. We can't keep taking losses like this," said Johnson.
Area North detectives were investigating.