Six men face felony charges after they allegedly used hammers to smash display windows at a Michigan Avenue Rolex boutique and steal more than $170,000 worth of watches, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office announced Sunday.
The robbery happened Friday afternoon around 2:30 p.m. when a group of four men wearing ski masks and carrying axes smashed the front windows of the Rolex boutique, 701 N. Michigan Ave., according to Chicago police. They took watches and fled on foot before getting into a red Nissan SUV and speediing off. Police scanner audio said shots were fired at police.
After a police chase on the Dan Ryan Expressway, the six men were taken into custody near 69th and Peoria on the South Side, and some of the watches were recovered.
The men — Victory Banks, 33; Will Brown, 21; Aldonte Goodman, 22; Anthony Hampton, 24; Dalvin Johnson, 31; and Armon Williams, 18 — were charged with theft by unauthorized control of property exceeding $100,000 and criminal damage to property between $500 and $10,000.
Prosecutors say that as the suspects grabbed watches outside a store patron and employees took shelter in a security room and watched the heist unfold on surveillance cameras. Five watches, valued at a total of $170,500, were taken.
The men were all ordered detained at a court hearing Sunday, according to State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke.
“Organized retail thieves need to understand we take these crimes extremely seriously and will prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law,” O’Neill Burke said in a press release announcing the charges. “These are far from victimless crimes, and I applaud the Chicago Police Department for their swift work bringing these offenders to justice.”
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