Burglars smash open gaming machines with sledgehammers at The Chill House bar in Frankfort, Illinois

The owners of a bar in southwest suburban Frankfort say burglars hit their business again on Monday morning, leaving a huge mess behind.

At least three burglars were caught on security cameras swinging sledgehammers to try to break open the gaming machines at The Chill House near 79th Avenue and Lincoln Highway around 5 a.m., just hours after the bar closed.

Video of the aftermath shows the thieves also broke a glass door to get inside. 

Owner Stan Rousonelos says this is the second burglary at the bar in five weeks. 

"We had a wonderful Saturday, Bears game on Sunday. People were throwing money in these things, so now each one of these machines is filled up. And they came in the middle of the night and they tried to clean them all out."

Rousonelos said he watched the burglary happen live on his phone. He said it happened in less than four minutes. Will County sheriffs arrived at the scene, but missed the crew by two minutes. 

Plywood on the front door was already in the back of the business from the last burglary. Rousonelos wonders if it's the same crew.

"The police men even told me today they are conscious of this problem," he said.

Authorities in Cook, Will, DuPage, Lake, Kane, and Kendall counties have formed a group of detectives from various agencies to form a task force. The goal is to zero in on crews causing havoc to businesses with gaming slots. 

"That's why this task force has to concentrate on a solution for us all long term," Rousonelos said.

 He is optimistic he won't get hit a third time. He's installing security shutters on all windows and doors.

"They will be hiding during the day while we're open and at night this place is gonna be locked down like a fortress."

Those shutters will run Rousonelos around $60,000. He says in the meantime, he's getting security to watch the business overnight.