CHICAGO (WLS) — At one Edgewater restaurant, the thief stole a small amount of cash but left the owners with a big repair bill.
Surveillance video shows the thief kicking through broken glass and climbing into the restaurant.
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Laxmi Ray is the co-owner of Sam’s Chicken & Ribs on Granville near Winthrop, where, in the early morning hours of Jan. 4, a burglar stole the cash register and damaged a computer before racing out of the business.
“It’s kind of sad, angry. Yeah, I’m very sad,” Ray said.
The offender stole a small amount of cash but caused thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.
“Very quick. Within, like ,30 seconds, he finished everything,” Ray said.
The crime was one of a string of burglaries committed, police say, by a suspect seen on CTA surveillance video trying to break open a cash register on a train platform.
Police say he is wanted for at least seven business break-ins in the past month in Uptown, Edgewater, and West Rogers Park, most within half a block of a CTA Red Line station.
The first three occurred in the 1100-block of West Argyle, near the Argyle Red Line stop, where CTA cameras captured his face behind a mask.
At Sam’s Chicken & Ribs, which is also half a block from the Red Line, they have had to replace the register and repair the front door.
“It’s painful, yeah. Pain for the business, painful for the business,” Ray said.
The owners say this is the second burglary at their restaurant in about a year, and so, they have ordered a metal security gate for the business.
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