A brazen midday smash-and-grab burglary of a Rolex store on the Magnificent Mile ended with six suspects in custody on Friday afternoon, Chicago police said. An initial estimate valued the stolen goods at over $250,000.
Citing preliminary information, CPD said four males broke out an exterior glass window with an object around 2:37 p.m. and took property from within. The offenders fled on foot before entering a red Nissan SUV and fleeing southbound from the location.
Video recorded by a passerby, posted online Friday evening by @ChicagoCritter, shows one of the thieves smashing the store’s window with a tool, possibly a sledgehammer, and reaching through the hole to grab merchandise. The window next to him has a large gaping hole visible, too.
“That’s what we call smash and grab,” a woman is heard saying on the video.
Video shows a smash-and-grab today at the Rolex store in Chicago’s Gold Coast, where masked suspects broke the front windows, fled under gunfire, and were later caught after a police chase ended with four arrests in Englewood.#chicago #chicagoscanner pic.twitter.com/fqxguCX8v3
— CHICAGO CRITTER (@ChicagoCritter) September 5, 2025
Six male offenders were later taken into custody after they bailed out of their getaway car near the 7000 block of South Peoria. CPD said police recovered the store’s stolen property, some of which the men threw out of the car as the cops moved in.
An officer at the scene said management initially estimated the value of the stolen watches to be about $261,000.
The Magnificent Mile has endured a string of high-profile smash-and-grab incidents in recent years, with thieves targeting luxury retailers for merchandise that is usually resold online at discounted prices. Friday’s burglary added another high-dollar hit to that list, though this time the suspects’ escape plan unraveled almost as quickly as it began.
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