Police said thieves robbed a Louis Vuitton store in the Chicago area on Wednesday and stole at least $120,000 worth of merchandise.
This marks the latest in a series of Louis Vuitton store robberies in the suburbs of Chicago in the past few months.
Police said at least 14 masked men ran into a luxury store in Oakbrook Mall, a suburb of Oakbrook, Illinois, about 16 miles west of Chicago.
“As soon as they entered the store, they took out the trash bags from their coats and started filling them,” Oakbrook police Chief James Kruger said.
Surveillance video captured the unfolding of the incident and showed the robbers working quickly in the store.
Wanted: At least 14 suspects were “snatched away” at the Louis Vuitton store in Oak Creek Center Mall near Chicago; police estimated that $100,000 worth of goods were stolen-WGN pic.twitter.com/mEaVnCA7x8
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 18, 2021
According to reports, the men then fled in three different cars, at least one of which is believed to have been stolen. The stolen vehicle was found by law enforcement, but the cargo was nowhere to be found.
Oak Creek police said they were following the prompts of witnesses and trying to track the license plate to find the thief. They also formed a working group with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office to try to prevent such incidents.
According to reports, people near the store at the time of the robbery were shocked by the shamelessness of the crime.
Witness Jasmine Tsang told WLS-TV: “You don’t want this kind of thing to happen outside the city.” “I actually moved in from this city recently. I thought I got rid of it all.”
Christina Arias/Getty
Although Louis Vuitton stores are usually monitored by security guards, this is the third time this luxury retailer has seen a shop in the Chicago area robbed in just two months.
The company’s branch of the Northbrook Courthouse in Northbrook, Illinois, 25 miles north of Chicago, was robbed twice. The crimes of the thieves were similar to those in the Oak Creek robbery.
The first robbery occurred on October 7, when “several wallets and suitcases” worth $66,000 were stolen from the store. Then on November 2, thieves were able to steal more than twice as many items from the same location, stealing $150,000 in stolen goods.
In both cases, the robbers can be seen coming and going in and out within a few seconds on the camera. Northbrook police said that they also fled in multiple vehicles.
Law enforcement agencies have not yet confirmed whether these robberies are related to or carried out by the same crew.
However, Northbrook Court acknowledged that thieves have been vigorously cracking down on high-end brands recently, and said in a statement, “This is an ongoing problem facing luxury brands in the Chicago area beyond Northbrook Court. We are deeply frustrated with one of our tenants this time. The target of crime.”
Since its founding in 1854, Louis Vuitton has become one of the most iconic luxury retailers and has become the world’s most valuable luxury brand for six consecutive years.
Louis Vuitton’s parent company LVMH also operates many other luxury brands such as Dior, Givenchy and Hublot. LVHM chairman Bernard Arnault (Bernard Arnault) is the third richest person in the world, with a reported net worth of US$20.1 billion.
Weekly newspaper Louis Vuitton has been contacted for comments.
