Rumors About Oakbrook Mall False: Village

OAK BROOK, IL — If you checked Facebook on Sunday afternoon, you may have figured that looters tore up Oakbrook Center mall in Oak Brook, particularly the Neiman Marcus store. That's what people were saying. But like the old whisper game, the truth was distorted into an unrecognizable form.

As precautionary measures, Oakbrook Center stores closed early and officers from many departments were all around the complex. That happened in the wake of reports of looters coming to the suburbs to target stores, the village said in a statement early Sunday evening. The rumors about the destruction at Oakbrook Center were false, the village said.

"There is no looting at the mall and there are no protesters or any criminal element inside the mall. It is controlled by law enforcement," the village said in a statement.

The village acknowledged one incident early Sunday morning in which a group of burglary suspects threw a cinder block at a window at the Neiman Marcus store. It did not shatter the glass, and the suspects left the area, police said.

The police said they believed it was the same group of people who targeted Orland Square Mall early in the morning.

Police sealed off every entrance to Oakbrook Center with jersey barriers, with the fire department filling them with water so that they could not be moved, the village said. Similar measures were being taken at other malls in the area.

The Oakbrook Center was closed again Monday because of the possibility of civil unrest, the village said.