Joliet Looters Failed To Get PS Fuels' Register: Owner

JOLIET, IL — On Monday afternoon, all the glass were boarded up at Joliet's PS Fuels & Market's as a result of Sunday night's looting. The owner said that a mob of looters armed with a crowbar took several swings at the bulletproof glass windows at 928 West Jefferson St. that guarded the cash register, lottery tickets and hundreds of boxes of cigarettes.

The bulletproof glass did not break, business owner Terry Lambert told Joliet Patch's editor.

Eventually, a group of 10 to 15 looters entered through the main door into the convenient store and selectively raided his merchandise, Lambert said. The store owner let Patch see the looting on the inside of his store, but he asked that Patch did not take any photos.

Surprisingly, the inside of the convenient store did not show any damage at all, none.

Rather, the looters seemed to line their pockets with items they preferred, the owner said.

For instance, the store's entire box of Twix candy bars was stolen. The looters took all the sour cream and onion Pringles chips. Several bags of Cheetos were stolen and so were some of the refrigerated Starbucks drinks.

Lambert estimated his losses from the stolen merchandise was perhaps around $1,500.

The looters failed to steal any cash, any lottery tickets and none of the cigarettes all kept behind the bullet-proof glass enclosing.

He said the looters stole several of his bandannas that were for sale toward the front counter.

He said the video surveillance footage of the crime shows that several of the looters entered his store without wearing any face coverings, but some of them walked out his gas station wearing the bandannas they stole.

Lambert, who also owns the Joliet Mobil store at Broadway and Theodore Street, told Patch he is hopeful he can reopen PS Fuels by the end of this week.

Several customers pulled into his boarded up business late Monday afternoon only to be told that PS Fuels was not open.

Lambert said PS Fuels had closed early Sunday night following the advice of the Joliet Police Department. The city shut down West Jefferson and Larkin Avenue around 8 p.m., after some of the people gathered at the Black Lives Matter rally became increasingly violent, throwing rocks at police and jumping on cars pulling up to the stop light at the intersection.

Mayor Bob O'Dekirk said Monday that at least 10 Joliet businesses sustained damage from the Sunday night looting with the worst crime happening just a couple blocks down the street from the PS Fuels, the midnight arson at the Valle's Mexican grocery store, 704 W. Jefferson St.