Elmhurst Robbery Tied To Looting Elsewhere: Mayor

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst Mayor Steve Morley acknowledged to the City Council on Monday evening that the robbery of a local mobile phone store a day earlier was connected to the looting that was happening elsewhere. "There has been some protests in downtown Chicago over the last couple of days," he said. "For the most part, Elmhurst has been unimpacted by this, although we did have a robbery of one of our mobile phone stores that I'd say would be directly correlated to this."

At the council meeting, Morley said the police department has increased the number of police officers on patrol and helped other suburbs.

"We encourage residents to stay safe and be vigilant and call if you see something," the mayor said.

Elmhurst City Manager Jim Grabowski praised the work of local police, saying their efforts kept "our incidents to a minimum."

Elmhurst police released information Monday afternoon about an incident Sunday at the local T-Mobile store, which an alderwoman labeled as looting but the city had yet to call it that. The city issued two alerts Sunday warning residents about the potential of looting, but did not give any indication of the local incident, leading to social media debates about whether looting happened in town.

According to Monday's news release, about a dozen people entered the T-Mobile store at Route 83 and St. Charles about 2 p.m. and broke the locked door leading into the backroom, then took three large boxes filled with numerous phone cases. The suspects were gone before officers arrived.

In another development, the city said Monday it had advised "select" businesses to close in the evening out of an abundance of caution for the safety of employees and customers. The city did not identify the businesses.

"Residents are encouraged to pay attention to their surroundings," the city said in its statement. "Law enforcement has seen a rise in this criminal behavior in the evening hours, therefore residents are advised to stay home in the evenings if possible."

On Sunday evening, Alderwoman Dannee Polomsky announced on Facebook that the T-Mobile store at Route 83 and St. Charles Road was looted a few hours earlier. "We have no other reports of businesses affected," she said.

On Monday, Elmhurst Patch unsuccessfully tried to reach Mayor Steve Morley, City Manager Jim Grabowski and police officials about whether any looting happened at T-Mobile or elsewhere in Elmhurst on Sunday.

Alderwoman Polomsky's post drew a number of comments. A couple of people were doubtful of Polomsky's statement. "Someone said the T-Mobile story was false. Is it confirmed?" one woman wrote. Another said the T-Mobile store appeared untouched. In response to those comments and after the original version of Patch's story appeared, Polomsky replied to the doubters on Facebook, "A number of individuals rushed in the front and back doors, and took boxes of merchandise at T-Mobile. There was no damage to windows."

The city's news release refers to the T-Mobile incident as a robbery, which would mean the suspects threatened others with force. The police report indicates it was a burglary.

No one answered the phone at the T-Mobile store Monday.

On Sunday, the city issued two alerts — one about 4 p.m. and another shortly before 7 p.m. — about reports of looters coming to the suburbs to cause problems at stores. Several in Elmhurst closed as a precaution. The city gave no indication in either alert that any local stores had been looted.

In its last alert, the city said it "continues to monitor this situation closely. Elmhurst Police have increased their patrol units and remain on high alert. Out of an abundance of caution, many businesses have been advised to close."