Dec. 10--Two people were arrested after a brazen "crash-and-grab" burglary at a Mag Mile store early Wednesday.
About 4 a.m., police were called to the Neiman Marcus store at 737 N. Michigan Ave. after burglars crashed a white Dodge Grand Caravan through the Superior Street entrance of the store, police said.
The officers spotted several people fleeing the store, leaving the minivan 10 to 15 feet inside the store, police said.
Marcus McNeese, an employee at the Hampton Homewood Suites a block away, said he walked outside to find officers talking to an employee of another hotel about the burglary. McNeese was told the thieves had fled down St. Clair Street.
As he walked back to his hotel, McNeese looked down the alley off North St. Clair and spotted someone behind a trash bin. "He was just laying on the ground, hiding in a facedown position," McNeese said.
McNeese said he and the other hotel employee flagged down police, who searched the alley and found two men hiding behind the trash bin.
"Police came, looked underneath the dumpster and shined the light on 'em and told 'em to get out," McNeese said.
Near North District Officers William Todde and Mark Schlink made the arrests, according to police. Most of the property taken in the burglary was recovered, they said.
Police said they were checking a car on the South Side believed used in the robbery.
Onlookers paused to take pictures of the store front as police taped off the scene. The Grand Caravan came to rest a short distance from the store's escalator. Shattered glass and merchandise littered the ground around the minivan.
Delwin Syas, who also works at the Hampton Hotel, said he was walking to work when he spotted the police cars.
"Took a picture. Had to Facebook it, you know," Syas said. "Walking to work and look what I see. Not everyday, man."
Syas stood with another man and tried to figure out how exactly the thieves crashed into the store front. Syas, who lives in Austin where two crash-and-grab robberies have happened in the past month, said he remembers similar robberies back when the Chicago Bulls were winning championships.
"This isn't anything new," he said. "It's like an old thing that's resurfaced, but I've never seen anyone do it downtown."
Almost exactly 24 hours earlier, thieves rammed a minivan through the front of a pawn shop in Marquette Park.
On Thanksgiving Day, a truck slammed through the back wall of J-Bees Clothing and Footwear in the Austin neighborhood and several thieves scooped up high-end clothing.
The day before, a van smashed through the metal shutters and glass doors of the Cisco Nyc store in the 4000 block of West Madison Street, police said. As many as 20 thieves rushed into the store and took what they could before fleeing.
Similar robberies have taken place in Northbrook, Aurora and Oak Brook since October, but law enforcement has not said whether any of the crimes are related.
