Police issued a crime alert in March 2015 in Chicago. They are at a disadvantage in breaking a ring of mall theft due to inadequate theft prevention systems at a local strip mall. Burglars targeted several stores in a Humboldt Park strip mall on the West Side of the city.
The burglaries occurred in the strip mall on March 9. The sly burglars used the “dead zone” time frame of about 6 AM on a Sunday, according to information gleaned from the community alert issued by the Area North detectives. At that time of the weekend, it is much easier to use the cover of darkness that late winter provides. On top of that, the street traffic on a sleepy Sunday morning is greatly diminished after a city’s busy Saturday evening. The quiet allows unmonitored criminals to get away with crime.
The suspects are described simply and vaguely so that it is almost guaranteed not to elicit any response or potential leads from the public of Chicago. The perpetrators got out of their vans and, according to the report, used garbage cans to conceal and carry the stolen items out of the stores they robbed.
Now that these expert criminals have developed a method of strip mall theft that worked successfully, there is nothing to prevent them from successfully striking again … and again. Now, not only is this strip mall a sitting victim to theft by robbery, but every other strip mall on the city’s West Side is too.
This strip mall is not a client of Stealth Monitoring. Stealth proactive live surveillance can detect and deter crime like this for greater security while reducing security guard and other expenses. A Stealth operator could have seen unusual activity, such as strip mall theft, activated an audible warning to deter the thieves, and called the local police.
Please contact Stealth today for more information to protect your shopping center or strip mall property. Visit our web site to see actual videos of criminals being apprehended.
