MOKENA, IL — A Mokena gas station was hit in a smash-and-grab to gaming machines early Tuesday, with one suspect threatening the store clerk with a sledgehammer, police said Tuesday.
At approximately 4:50 a.m. Tuesday, police said two white vehicles backed up to the front door of the Gas N Wash, 19990 LaGrange Road, where multiple masked suspects emerged from each vehicle and entered the store with sledgehammers and crowbars, police said.
One suspect jumped the counter and threatened the clerk with the hammer, ordering them to open the cash register drawers.
Simultaneously, several other suspects began smashing the gaming terminals, targeting the cash boxes, police said. One patron told police they spotted a handgun in one suspect's waistband.
Suspect vehicles fled northbound on LaGrange and continued onto I-80 East, police said.
Police are awaiting video from the station, but witnesses told officers the suspects were on-scene for less than two minutes, police said.
Police said that contrary to scanner audio, they were told that no handgun was displayed and that no one was struck with the hammer.
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