The Chicago Police Department launched independent investigations into three separate commercial burglaries involving automated teller machines early Saturday morning.
Detectives are currently reviewing surveillance footage and processing physical evidence from crime scenes spanning from the North Side down to Chinatown.
The first incident occurred at approximately 4:00 a.m. in the 3800 block of North Clark Street, situated within the busy Lakeview entertainment district near Wrigley Field.
According to police reports, three unidentified suspects forced entry into a local bar by breaching the rear service door.
The suspects targeted the establishment’s standalone cash machine, successfully removing the entire unit before escaping into the night.
Local business owners in the Lakeview area expressed immediate concern over the speed and precision of the break-in.
Approximately 20 minutes later, emergency dispatchers received a secondary commercial alarm call from the downtown Loop area.
At 4:28 a.m., multiple suspects shattered the front display window of O’Neil’s on Wells, a popular tavern located on South Wells Street under the elevated train tracks.
The group entered the commercial space, grabbed the business’s cash machine, and loaded it into a waiting vehicle.
Witnesses reported seeing the suspects flee the downtown scene at a high rate of speed inside a blue sedan.
The pattern shifted from manual entry to structural building ramming just 22 minutes later on the city’s Near South Side.
At approximately 4:50 a.m., a distinct crew utilized a white sports utility vehicle to breach a commercial storefront in Chinatown.
The driver drove the heavy vehicle directly through the main doors of a gas station located in the 2400 block of South Archer Avenue.
The occupants exited the vehicle inside the damaged structure, seized the building’s cash machine, and fled the area immediately.
The impact caused extensive structural damage to the convenience store section of the Archer Avenue fueling station, forcing a temporary closure of the facility.
Chicago Police Department officials stated that detectives are treating the three incidents as separate, unlinked cases at this stage of the investigation.
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Area One and Area Three detectives are handling the respective neighborhood investigations, looking for crossover vehicle descriptions or suspect patterns.
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Business associations in the targeted corridors are advising local merchants to empty their cash machines before closing hours to reduce the incentive for late-night break-ins.
Store owners are also encouraged to check their exterior security cameras to ensure the lenses have a clear view of rear entry points and main parking areas.
The Chicago Police Department requests that anyone with information regarding the blue sedan, the white SUV, or the identities of the suspects call the non-emergency line or submit an anonymous tip online.
