- Three stores in
Chicago 's Wicker Park neighborhood were robbed within one hour onBlack Friday , according to local reports. - Best Buy locations in Minneapolis-St.Paul were also targeted, local media said.
Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul were hit with a slew of burglaries on Black Friday, the latest in a $4 plaguing retailers across the US.
The robberies in Chicago took place at three stores on the city's northwest side in the early morning on Friday, according to local reports. The targets — including
Less than 24 hours before, police also responded to an incident at a
The string of incidents come after $4 from a
Meanwhile Friday, a group of up to 30 people entered a Best Buy south of downtown Minneapolis and stole electronics, $4. Another Best Buy location near downtown Saint Paul was also hit by robbers on Black Friday, the outlet reported.
While it remains unclear if the looting is connected, Scott Decker — a professor at Arizona State University and an expert on robberies and gangs — $4 that media coverage of the incidents may be prompting copycat events.
"It may be that someone who is an offender who...sees it on TV and says, 'Hey, the cops in my city aren't that sophisticated,' or 'We could get away with one if we just go in real quickly and get out quickly,'" he said.
The first of the Black Friday incidents in Chicago was reported at the House of Hoops by Foot Locker location on North Milwaukee Avenue at 1:40 a.m., where officers responded to an alarm and found broken windows and missing products, Chicago police told $4.
The next took place 20 minutes later at a nearby North Face store where police reported that the door had been pried open and "numerous coats were taken," according to ABC7 Chicago. At 2:40 a.m., police then responded to another alarm at Boost Mobile, where they found various electronic devices had been stolen.
According to ABC7 Chicago, police would not share if the incidents are related and no one is currently in custody.