Burglars Hit Home Run on Chinese Restaurant Window: Cops

DeVonte Smith, 18, is one of three people charged with burglarizing an Oak Forest restaurant. | Cook County Sheriff

Burglars bashed their way into a Chinese restaurant with a baseball bat and swiped a cash register late Sunday evening, prosecutors said.

Bail was set at $15,000 for two men charged in the burglary -- DeVonte Smith, 18, and Noel Taboada, 19 -- who appeared in court Monday for a bond hearing in Bridegview. A juvenile was also arrested.

A witness reported seeing a man use a baseball bat to break the front window of the Number One Chop Suey Restaurant located in a strip mall at 15833 S. Central Ave., Oak Forest, around 11:10 p.m. Sunday, the prosecutor said.

After making a hole in the window, a second man ran through the opening and grabbed the restaurant’s cash register, according to the witness.

The prosecutor said the men put the cash register and baseball bat into the trunk of a white Chevy. Oak Forest police stopped the Chevy and the men and juvenile were brought back for a show up.

The witness was able to positively identify the alleged burglars. Police said Smith gave a statement admitting to the crime.

Neither man has a prior criminal background, the prosecutor said.

The assistant public defender told the judge that Taboada’s boss had been in court earlier in the day to “support him.”

Smith lives in Park Forest with his girlfriend and baby, but before that lived with his mother in Chicago Heights.

The judge told the men they weren’t to contact the witness and were banned from Number One Chop Suey. They are also to surrender any weapons and FOID cards.

Smith and Taboada are due back in court on Feb. 22.

~ Report compiled by Patch contributor Scott Batzel