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Crash-and-grab robberies target upscale Chicago shopping district

Businesses in the Windy City face a growing threat blowing through their doors. Robbers are using a technique called "crash and grab"
Crash and grab: Thieves caught on camera ramming into stores 02:36

Robbers in the Windy City are using tactics called crash and grab to target Chicago's upscale shopping district, The Magnificent Mile. As surveillance videos show, all you need to pull off the heist is a stolen car and the determination to drive through glass storefronts or brick walls to get what you want, reports CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds.

Crash-and-grab burglaries are not terribly sophisticated. They involve blunt force and big payoffs and give new meaning to the term "breaking and entering."

The thefts have taken place at Louis Vuitton, Nieman Marcus and other expensive stores - usually overnight when they're closed and foot traffic outside is minimal.

Teams of thieves then grab anything they can get their hands on before stealing away.

"Some retailers have lost, you know, in excess of $100,000 worth of goods," Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said.

She said about a dozen high- and low-end establishments have been hit during this Christmas shopping season.

"It's tough to catch people because they don't spend a lot of time and even if there is a surveillance video, like I said, many times they're disguised," Alvarez said. "They have a mask over their face so you really can't identify them.

It's expected that the thieves will attempt to re-sell the stolen merchandise.

"Good old-fashioned crime, theft, is still around and people are trying to be a little bit more creative, being a little more brazen, taking a lot more risk to gain more," said Tanya Triche, vice president and general counsel of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. "It doesn't matter if the stores are located on the Magnificent Mile or in the neighborhoods. Everyone is taking precautions and doing what they can to make sure that shoppers and employees are safe."

So far there have been few arrests. While no one has been injured, as long as thieves are using a car as a weapon, authorities believe it's only a matter of time before someone is hurt -- or even killed.

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