Burglars smash into pizzeria, ice cream shop on Chicago's Southwest Side
Burglars made off with thousands of dollars early Wednesday after breaking into a pizzeria on Chicago's Southwest Side, and also hit an ice cream shop blocks away.
Angelo's Pizzeria, at 4850 S. Pulaski Rd. in the Archer Heights neighborhood, was targeted by burglars.
Owner Adrian Zamudio said he got a call at about 5:30 a.m. that somebody had broken into the restaurant, and he rushed over. Zamudio said surveillance video indicated that four men broke in between 3:58 a.m. and 4:03 a.m.
They broke through the front door and a second door, he said.
The burglars ransacked both registers and took $1,000 cash, and also broke into the safe, which contained $5,000, Zamudio said.
The burglars also took a couple of laptops and a still camera, Zamudio said.
The burglars were observed to be wearing hoodies, gloves, and masks, and using a stolen black Infiniti sedan as a getaway car.
Information from Chicago police on the burglary was not immediately available.
Just a few blocks away at 51st Street and Pulaski Road, police gave a similar description of four burglars who they said broke the glass window of a business to steal cash boxes.
La Michoacana Premium ice cream shop at 5160 S. Pulaski Rd. was also targeted by burglars early Wednesday. Police said at 4:24 a.m., four people broke a glass window and made off with cash boxes.
The burglars fled in a black sedan in that case as well.
Zamudio said there has been a rash of burglaries in the area.
"From what these guys were telling me, it looks like they hit a couple Italian restaurants, and previous to this, they were hitting Mexican restaurants," Zamudio said.
Zamudio said restaurants are already struggling with the economy and business not being the greatest.
"Something like this, obviously we have to close operations in the morning, send our staff home," he said. "We don't know how long it will take for us to get back up."
