WICKER PARK — An overnight break-in at a Wicker Park furniture store resulted in criminals opening the back of an ATM stocked with cash just hours earlier and emptying it, store workers said on Wednesday.
Lubinski Furniture, 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave., has an ATM available 24 hours daily from the street on Milwaukee Ave. Customers access the machine from the street while the back is housed inside the building.
Sometime between 7 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. Wednesday, thieves cut electrical wires to disable alarms and broke in through the back of the large building, just south of the Milwaukee, Damen and North Avenues intersection.
After breaking into a closet to access the back of the ATM machine, crooks removed an undisclosed amount of cash inside. The store's own soap and water supply was spilled over the carpet, perhaps to destroy footprints or evidence, workers speculated.
An ATM was accessed through the back to empty it of cash. (DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser)
Drawers in the store's office were ransacked and even cookie tins were opened and turned over. No money or cash was taken from the store and all furniture in the storeroom was intact.
The owner of the store, Ken Lubinski, declined comment.
A worker said that the third-generation family-run store has not had a burglary in several decades. The store has been in business since 1937.
Mike Boyd, owner of Rockford-based Meirtran, which stocks and services the ATM and uses its own cash to put in the machine, said a second burglary, in addition to the one inside Lubinski Furniture, had also occurred in the area recently.
"It was professional. They knew what they were doing. We are going to have a second alarm system as a backup to a backup installed," a frustrated Boyd said.
The site has security cameras but since the wires were cut, the cameras were not operating at the time of the incident.
Officer Janel Sedevic, a Chicago Police spokesman, said police responded at 10:07 a.m. Wednesday.
Detectives from Area North were observed on the scene early Wednesday, taking pictures and interviewing workers. The matter, as well as the second burglary of similar pattern, are both under investigation.
Area North detectives are investigating. Anyone with information about the burglaries can call police at 312-744-8263.
An ATM that isa housed inside of a furniture shop was burglarized sometime between 7 p.m. Tuesday and 10 a.m.
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