Jewelry store heist in Wicker Park; manager speaks out

We want to bring you over to Wicker Park now. There's a jewelry heist that went down there. Alexander Marks is on Division. Brittany Toulouse is there now with the shop manager to get the details. Brittany? Yeah, guys, I'm right in front of Alexandra Marks right on the front door. You can see it is boarded up the latest victims of a smash and grab here with me. I have Elizabeth Boylan to talk about it. You are the store manager here. So Elizabeth, just tell me what happened yesterday. When did this happen? Yeah, so at about 2:45 Monday morning, we found that three men unfortunately broke in. They threw a large rock through the door and then you can just see them enter with bags and then just immediately start shoving items inside of their bags. They were in and out in under two minutes, so about a minute and 30 seconds. And then you can just see them just run out and then apparently get inside of a car and then head east on Division. Yeah, and yet Chicago police still say no injuries thankfully, but no arrests as well. When you were watching that video, you said they were in really quick. Did they seem coordinated? Were they grabbing specific stuff? It looks like they were just, with them having to get in and out so quickly, they mainly just got all the items from the front of the store. In the video, you will see one gentleman just clearing items from the window, a separate gentleman clearing the shelves, and then the third gentleman just kind of heading towards Of course, the back, of course, They probably find the cash register, but they just took a bunch of jewelry items at that time. And again, it's a jewelry store with really beautiful, fine jewelry inside. Do you have a ticket number or a sticker number of how much was taken? Yeah, so the owner, Alexandra, she's estimating about $3,000 in losses at this time. So, yeah, very unfortunate. And you guys were closed yesterday. You're back open today. How is the feeling inside? Are you guys on edge at all a little bit just because of the like the violation that happened here? Yeah, definitely. It is scary, especially since we see that it's been happening across the city. And so now for it to actually hit so close to home. Yeah, we definitely were shaken up just a little bit. But you know, the team is amazing here. We were able to rally around Alexandra, You know, come in, help clean up and then be open for business the very next day. Yeah, and we were talking before we went on air just about, you know, you're not the first person to be the victim of a robbery, burglary, or smash and grab, even over the last week. Just what are your thoughts just on how the summer has gone, how the fall has gone? We've seen over a dozen on Clark Street. There was a bunch on 95th Street. Just how are you feeling? Yeah, so again, with everything that we've been hearing around the city, like... Again, of course we weren't expecting it to hit so close to home, but with everything happening, the only thing that we can do is just try to pick up the pieces and move forward. Again, I'm so grateful for the staff here, and then Allie Alexandra, the owner, I'm pretty sure she's so grateful to have the team kind of just rally around her. There's been a huge outpour of support from the community, and so we just hope to be able just to come back stronger, especially for the upcoming holiday season. And have you had any other businesses in the area who have been victimized kind of reach out and show some support? We've had like our regulars who have stopped by and offered, you know, their support. And so we've also received emails from customers as well, too. So, again, this is nice to feel supported. And I know the community is going to definitely be very involved with just making sure that we're OK offering like any additional support. But again, we're excited. I'm excited to be able to come back and open the very next day, and I just look forward to kind of just going back to normal. And can you just tell me what the cleanup process was like, because glass alone is hard to clean up, then jewelry can be small pieces, were there any pieces that were broken as well? Yeah, so there was definitely a lot of wreckage of course, so with me walking in, of course the majority of the glass that was broken there was already cleaned up by the time I came in from Alexandra. Glass shards everywhere, displays, broken jewelry pieces just kind of scattered around the store and so we're still actually finding pieces of glass as well too. But it's just going to be something that's going to probably take some time to get fully clean but we did do a deep clean yesterday for sure because we want to make sure that the environment is safe for customers to still come in and shop with us. And any messages in case the people responsible, as you said, there were three people in the video. Police said they headed east in a white sedan down division. Any messages for those people or people who know them who are watching? Cuz if they're going into these places at 3 a.m. when no one's inside, it may not seem like it's attacking a person as well. What's your message? Yeah. With everything that's been happening again, with us being targeted, I'm pretty sure no business can really anticipate, you know, what the amount of damage that's going to be. And so, again, even though no arrests have been made, we would hope that, you know, some arrests could possibly be made. But we just hope to be able to, like I said, to come back even stronger. So we're not going to let this keep us down. We're just going to just. Again, rally around each other, do what we can here, and then just be ready just to move forward again. And second to last question, is there anything you would like to see from Chicago Police or from your alder person for this area to help businesses not be victimized? Yeah. We will say that, of course, we will want to be able to expand more the police presence. So, but again, it could happen at any time. So, we, the police were actually the first to actually arrive on a scene. And then the owner, Alexander, was second to arrive. So, the police were definitely here and also offering their support as well, too. And so, we would just hope for them to just continue just to go around the stores, you know, just even if it's just spreading awareness about what's happening, you know. Yeah. And you mentioned, like you said, it could happen anytime, any business. Just how are you guys feeling going forward? Is there any concern that they may come back or that your neighbors may be hit next? Yeah, definitely. There is concern for what could potentially happen in the future. I will say we still have a way to secure the door, even though it doesn't look as secure with the board. But other than that, we just... We just have to move forward. We still have things, you know, that we think about in the back of our mind that's concerning, but I think ultimately we're just looking to move forward and just get back to normal. Thank you so much for your time here. And again, one of the latest businesses hit in an overnight burglary. It happened around 3 a.m. Sunday into Monday. Police say that the people got in a van, a white sedan, and drove east on Division. Area 3 detectives are investigating, and if you have any information, you're asked to give them a call. I'll send it back to you guys for now.