Burglars stole tens of thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise after crashing a xxx into a smoke shop Thursday morning in Chicago's western suburbs.

A driver in a Jeep backed into the entrance of Vice City Smokes in North Riverside, shattering the glass storefront and taking out the metal security gate, leaving behind a pile of bricks, so burglars could get inside the business to carry out their crime.

Vice City Smokes co-owner Jay Ali said he received the call from his alarm company shortly before 4 a.m.

"And I knew it wasn't going to be good," Ali said.

The heist was caught on the store's security cameras.

"Three cars came in filled with people. There was about seven to eight people that came down, all carrying garbage bags, reversed the truck into the building, broke the gate, reversed it again to knock it all clear to make a path, came in with garbage bags, started dumping all the merchandise inside," Ali said.

In all, Ali said the thieves took about $40,000 worth of items; including expensive lighters and hookahs, bags of tobacco, and a large amount of the popular brand of Backwoods cigars. 

Ali said 80% of the stockroom was cleared out. The thieves even took the cash register.

"They tried taking the ATM, couldn't take it," he said. "They can take $40,000 worth of merchandise and $20,000 worth of damage and just go sell it for probably like a couple hundred bucks, couple thousand dollars. They don't know. You know, they don't care. It's not theirs."

Ali said he and his brother opened the shop about two years ago. They're now trying to work with their insurance company to figure out the cost and repair of the entrance, which no longer exists.

"We're actually are getting quotes right now, getting this repaired up today. … It's going to be a big job for sure. You've got bricks, and glass, and a whole bunch of stuff going on, electrical," Ali said. "I like to work hard. So it's okay. Just one of those obstacles I got to go through."

North Riverside police said the thieves used three vehicles – a van, a white sedan, and a blue SUV.

No one was in custody Thursday afternoon.