Peotone, Illinois: Eight-Person Crew Targets Six Gaming Machines at Travel Center, Police Say
- Five went inside while three others kept watch, police say.
- In Peotone, Illinois, eight masked offenders arrived at the Peotone Travel Center at about 4:58 a.m.
- While the five were inside, two others guarded the entrance, police said.
Five went inside while three others kept watch, police say. It’s one of many recent smash-and-grabs aimed at video gambling machines across the Chicago suburbs.
In Peotone, Illinois, eight masked offenders arrived at the Peotone Travel Center at about 4:58 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3. Five of them went inside. Less than three minutes later they were back out, leaving six damaged video poker machines behind and taking an unknown amount of cash from the machines’ cash boxes, according to the Peotone Police Department.
While the five were inside, two others guarded the entrance, police said. The eighth kept watch near Wilmington-Peotone Road. All of them wore masks and gloves. They came in two Acuras, one white and one gray, and neither car had registration plates.
Nobody was hurt, and no one was playing the machines at the time. Police have described the incident as a robbery.
Surveillance video described by NBC 5 Chicago shows the offenders hitting the machines again and again with hammers. Officers reached the travel center, at 601 S. 88th Ave., very shortly after the group left, police said.
How shortly, the department isn’t saying. In its statement, it said it knows exactly where its officers were and how fast they responded, but it won’t release those details because they could help offenders plan future crimes.
Peotone police are going through surveillance footage and other evidence. If you were near the travel center around 4:58 a.m. that morning and saw a white or gray Acura without plates, or anything else that seemed suspicious, the department is asking you to get in touch. Its phone number is 708-258-3003.
Not an isolated case
If this sounds familiar, there’s a reason. Since at least early August, crews have been going after video gambling machines at bars, restaurants, gas stations and a truck stop across the Chicago suburbs.
They’re hitting places a lot of people stop every day. The part owner of one Frankfort bar and restaurant told ABC7 Chicago that nearly every restaurant, gas station and bar and grill has the machines now, and that they’ve become a necessity for business owners.
In a span of about a week around the Peotone case, several other businesses were hit.
On Aug. 28, three masked, gloved suspects with sledgehammers and pry tools went after the machines at the Thorntons gas station in Monee while the store was open and customers were inside, Monee police said, according to Patch. No one was hurt. The Vedette reported that the suspects then fled into Peotone and drove through the Peotone Travel Center’s parking lot.
On Aug. 31, five masked men used a sledgehammer to smash their way into JBD White Horse Inn in New Lenox, where they destroyed several gaming machines and took the cash boxes, according to police reports cited by Patch and the Daily Southtown.
The next day, video caught at least seven people with their faces covered inside Tony’s Villa Rosa Pizzeria & Catering in Frankfort, CBS News Chicago reported. The owner said all of the restaurant’s gaming machines were broken open.
Later on the same morning as the Peotone incident, New Lenox officers responded around 6 a.m. to Tru Country Bar & Grill. Four masked, gloved suspects had used a sledgehammer to get in and taken the cash boxes from four gaming machines while a driver waited outside, police told Patch. The Daily Southtown also reported the break-in.
Two days later, on Sept. 5, it was another New Lenox business, Route 30 Liquors. Officers found a glass door shattered and three gaming machines damaged, according to police reports cited by Patch.
The problem isn’t limited to the south suburbs. Early on Sept. 4, at least eight men armed with sledgehammers hit a Gas-N-Wash in Wheeling, CBS News Chicago reported, and an employee told the station they smashed open the store’s video gambling machines. In the week leading up to Sept. 10, the Daily Herald reported, crews also hit a restaurant and a gambling cafe in Schaumburg and a gas station in Green Oaks. An employee at Frato’s Kitchen & Gaming in Schaumburg told the paper the business had to close for two days to clean up, and its gambling terminals were destroyed.
Hit twice in a month
On Monday, Sept. 14, it happened again at The Chill House, a family-owned bar and restaurant in Frankfort that had already been hit in August. Three masked suspects used sledgehammers to get in, ABC7 Chicago reported, and went after five of the business’s six machines.
“It was like déjà vu,” part owner Stan Rousenelos told the station.
The business says it is now installing interior steel shutters and a 24-hour monitoring service. The Will County Sheriff’s Office said no one was in custody.
Police join forces
CBS News Chicago has reported that investigators believe the same crew is behind a string of these burglaries. Police haven’t named any suspects, though, or said publicly that one group is responsible for all of them.
What agencies have done is team up. More than 50 detectives from police departments and sheriff’s offices in Cook, Lake, DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will counties have formed a task force to share information and track down those responsible, the Daily Herald reported. The Illinois Attorney General’s office is taking part, and the Illinois Gaming Board is leading the effort because the crimes involve gambling terminals.
Lake County Sheriff’s Chief Christopher Covelli told the Daily Herald the crews appear to be very organized and seem to be tied to street gangs. According to the paper, they typically work in groups of six to 12, often use stolen vehicles, and force their way in with sledgehammers, crowbars and other tools before driving off, often at excessive speeds.
Covelli also told ABC7 that the crews appear to move across county lines and generally head back into the city afterward to split up the cash. He said investigators are hearing of several hundred of these break-ins over the past 12 months in the counties that border Cook.
Some businesses are adding their own protection. ABC7 reported that a break-in at a Hickory Hills gaming parlor was stopped when a security fogger quickly filled the room.
What we still don’t know
Police haven’t said how much money was taken from the Peotone Travel Center. No arrests have been announced in the case, and police haven’t said whether the people involved are connected to any of the other break-ins.
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