Overnight burglars hit three automotive businesses and stole over 10 expensive automobiles near Northwest Highway in Arlington Heights in the past ten days.
Police officers from Arlington Heights responded about 7:00 a.m. Wednesday, December 7, 2022 to a report of a commercial burglary and multiple automobile thefts at Gerber Collision & Glass, 1430 West Northwest Highway in Arlington Heights. An employee reported finding a garage door open when arriving to work. Five vehicles were reported stolen — an Acura, a Ford, a Kia, a Lexus and a Mercedes. The crime is reported to have occurred between 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 6, 2022 and 7:00 a.m. Wednesday, December 7, 2022.
The same overnight period, police officers from Arlington Heights had responded about 3:00 a.m. to an activated burglar alarm at Arlington Collision, 407 North Salem Avenue, just east of the United States Postal Service building near Euclid Avenue and Northwest Highway.
Upon arrival, police discovered an open garage door and multiple broken windows. In a community crime release, police reported an initial investigation showed that four unknown subjects arrived in a black vehicle and made entry into the business. Arlington Heights Police Department reported that the subjects subsequently stole three Audi vehicles and one Porsche. However, surveillance video shows seven active vehicles at the scene during the early morning hours of the break-in. Surveillance video shows three active vehicles outside the building while four vehicles were driven outside of the building, and away from the crime scene.
Surveillance video of a commercial burglary with auto thefts at Arlington Collision, 407 North Salem Avenue in Arlington Heights, Illinois YouTube Tips ⓘ
The video surveillance system captured six vehicles being driven away by six separate individuals. A sixth (or seventh individual?) was captured on camera entering a black vehicle (looks blue with headlights on it) and sitting in the driver’s seat of the black vehicle while the other six vehicles were driven away from the crime scene. The driver that was sitting in the black (or dark blue) vehicle got out of the driver’s seat and got into a white vehicle that was parked right behind the dark vehicle, and then drove the white vehicle away. The video available to CARDINAL NEWS did not show the black vehicle being driven away. The black vehicle that the suspects used to arrive at Arlington Collision is believed to be a stolen vehicle. Initially, CARDINAL NEWS didn’t confirm whether the dark vehicle was left behind, or not. That confirmation might be updated later.
In summary, an outdoor camera captured three vehicles (two white vehicles and one black vehicle) outside the building and four vehicles, that had been inside the building, being driven out of the building. East of at least six of the seven vehicles were occupied by a separate individual driver. There were six or seven total offenders on scene at the scene — possibly only six offenders if the dark-colored car was left behind. If five vehicles were stolen from this scene, the offenders arrived in two vehicles.
Surveillance cameras also captured images of offenders inside the clean and meticulous business, and also captured the image of one suspect …
breaking a garage door window with a large pipe wrench or large bolt cutter,
opening the garage door via reaching the garage door controls through the broken window opening, and
running into the business carrying the pipe wrench or large bolt cutter.
The entire burglary from the point the garage window was shattered (03:52:34 a.m.) to the point just after the last vehicle was driven out of the building (03:58:04 a.m.) was 5 minutes and 30 seconds.
The camera clock indicated the crime began at about 3:52:34 a.m., but initially there was no confirmation whether the video surveillance system was set to Central Daylight Savings Time of Central Standard Time. It is possible that the camera was set to Daylight Savings Time and the break-in actually occurred at 2:52 a.m. with the police responding about 3:00 a.m.
Additionally, there was a third burglary to an automotive business within the last week. Details have not been released, but a commercial burglary occurred at an automotive business located near the Arlington Heights Mariano’s, and vehicles were stolen from that business, also.
