A West Town jewelry store that was hit by looters during unrest earlier this summer was struck yet again when a chaotic scene unfolded in Chicago early Monday morning.
Surveillance video from West Town Jewelry and Loan, 2059 W. Chicago Ave., showed four suspects with masks and gloves banging on bulletproof glass until they succeeded in breaking the lock.
In an interview with NBC 5, owner Gabe Coconate said it "makes me sick, I can't believe it's happening again." The jewelry store was hit two months earlier following protests stemming from George Floyd's death in Minneapolis.
Coconate believes the same crew came back again.
"They knew exactly where to go, how to come in," he said. "They knew the layout of my store."
Another angle from a surveillance camera shows that once the interior door was busted open, four men rushed in. Moments later, more people hopped out of a car and entered the store through the broken glass window.
Once they got what they wanted, some looters carried items to the waiting vehicle while others ran down the street.
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"Not only do they take what they can, but they just start destroying everything which is just crazy," Coconate said. "I have furniture somebody just took a knife and cut it up for no reason."
The owners estimated losses in the tens of thousands of dollars, plus their children's Google Chromebooks for e-learning in the fall.
"It's not just stuff," said owner Carla Coconate. "It's everything we care about."
Surveillance video has been turned over to Chicago Police Department detectives.
The owners are committed to reopening the store and plan to hire private security.
