The surveillance video captured the shocking moment when a future thief tried to break into Chicago jewelry store with a heavy metal chain – but instead came face to face with the barrel of the gun.
The attempted smashing and grabbing took place just before 1 a.m. Friday at The Jewels of Chicago on East Madison Street on Jewelers Row.
The footage from CBS 2 shows a man in a blue puffy coat with a raised hood lurking outside the store. He waits while people pass before peering out the window.
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Footage from CBS 2 shows a man in a blue fluffy coat with a raised hood lurking outside the store
The man waits while people pass before peering into the jewelry store window
He leaves for a brief second and returns with a heavy metal chain, which he drops to the glass door, smashing one of the panels
He was preparing to raise the metal chain to the door again, but instead came face to face with the building manager pointing a gun in his direction.
He leaves for a brief second and returns with a heavy metal chain that he drops to the glass door that shatters one of the panels.
Jason Kuach, who runs the building, told CBS 2 that the man stepped back and seemed to be checking to see if he would hear an alarm. He was in the office and heard the commotion.
“I don’t think he expected anyone to be inside,” Kuach said.
Jason Kuach, who runs the building, was in the office when he heard the commotion
“For me, this store is bread and butter,” Kadar Mohammed, president and owner of The Jewels of Chicago, told CBS2
The door of the jewelry is already boarded up after a future thief tried to break through
The attempted break-in and seizure took place shortly before 1 a.m. Friday at The Jewels of Chicago, on East Madison Street, at Jewelers Row
When no alarm goes off, the man prepares to pick up the metal chain on the door again. But before he could break the second glass panel, Kuach rushed at him with a pointed pistol.
“I did not have the opportunity to tell him anything. The moment he saw me come out with a firearm, he quickly fled, “Kuach told CBS 2,” and I just heard, “No, no, no.”
Kuach said he was ready to fire if necessary, but there were no shots and no injuries were reported.
The identity of the potential thief is unknown.
As of Friday night, the store was still closed.
“For me, this store is bread and butter,” Kadar Mohammed, president and owner of The Jewels of Chicago, told CBS2.
The Jewels Of Chicago has been a family business since 2010.
Chicago’s jewelry remains nailed after a thief broke down the door (pictured) early Friday, but was thwarted by the building’s manager
Jewelry fills boxes at the Chicago Jewelry Row store
Chicago’s bustling shopping district has become the epicenter of burglary and looting, with gangs of young people flocking to luxury stores, snatching goods and fleeing.
Burberry’s store on the famous Magnificent Mile in Chicago has been repeatedly targeted by brazen thieves between November and January.
Burberry is not the only business in Chicago that has been searched by organized gangs for smashing and looting.
In November, more than a dozen people stormed a Louis Vuitton store in the Chicago suburb of Oakbrook and stole $ 120,000 worth of items seen in a surveillance video to be taken out in garbage bags.
In December, two thieves broke into the Gold Coast Auto Gallery, smashed shop windows and distributed high-end watches worth $ 1 million.
Days later, police said a 16-year-old girl robbed the Niketown and Zara stores on North Michigan Avenue and used an electric shock to guard. She was later arrested.
Illinois Attorney General Kuame Raul said in September that large-scale thefts from shops organized by organized crime groups cost U.S. retailers approximately $ 45 billion in annual losses.
Raoul has set up a working group on organized retail crime, consisting of public and private actors, to tackle the problem directly.
“These brazen, violent crimes have been committed by sophisticated criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking and other serious crimes,” Raoul said at the time.
A similar trend is observed in other major US cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, which have progressive district attorneys and lenient sentences for nonviolent crimes, such as petty crimes.