Burglars In Stolen Car Break Into T-Mobile: Cops

PALOS HEIGHTS, IL — Burglars broke into a Palos Heights cell phone store making off with merchandise and cash early Tuesday morning.

Officers responded to an alarm around 4:15 a.m. at T-Mobile, 7213 College Drive, Palos Heights. When officers arrived, they discovered that the business’s front window had been shattered. The suspects removed an unknown number of phones and cash, police said.

A surveillance video captured a white Dodge Durango that had been reported stolen out of Chicago on Feb. 14. The vehicle was identified as belonging to the suspects. Several nearby police departments reported seeing the Durango driving erratically before getting on I-57 at 147th Street heading north toward Chicago, said Deputy Chief Bill Czajkowski, of the Palos Heights Police Department.

The vehicle fled from police after several attempts were made to stop it. Czajkowski said officers did not chase the car.

“Our standard for pursuit is very limited,” the deputy chief said. “We don’t initiate for a property crime to minimize injury to the innocent public, so a pursuit wasn’t engaged.”

Evidence was collected at the scene and sent to a private crime lab used by Palos Heights police. Czajkowski said the stolen phones do not appear to have been activated.