A growing trend in car crimes are the crash-and-grab thefts where criminals use a car to literally crash through a storefront. One prime example of this scheme comes out of Chicago where an organized group used a Dodge Charger to clean out a high-end sneaker store, making off with quite the haul in no time.
A stick shift stopped carjackers from taking a man’s Porsche.
The local news report about the incident, from WGN, seems to hint that the thieves used their own Charger to commit this crime. We can guarantee the Mopar was stolen then used to smash through the storefront.
Either the shoe thieves stole the car and then used it for this crime or they bought the stolen car off a car theft ring. Even though criminals tend to be a little dumb, they’re not stupid enough to use their own vehicle for something like this, including leaving it behind for police to trace the heist back to them.
Sneakers might not sound like a lucrative business, but this store specialized in high end product, including some Nikes purportedly worn by Michael Jordan. They sell for thousands and thousands of dollars, which sounds just crazy but it makes sense why these thieves thought driving a muscle car through the front of the store made for the perfect heist.
The unfortunate result of these crash-and-grab thefts is they fuel even more demand for stolen cars, especially ones that do well smashing through storefronts. That means the supply of vehicles gets pinched, car insurance rates go up, businesses see their costs skyrocket, and perhaps local businesses pack up and move to a place where crime isn’t so out of control.
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