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Cubs Fans Roam Wrigleyville In Celebration Of World Series Title

By Ariel Cheung | November 3, 2016 5:33am | Updated on November 3, 2016 5:56am
 Chicago Cubs fans celebrated past 4 a.m. Thursday in the hours after the Cubs won their first World Series since 1908.
Cubs Fans Roam Wrigleyville In Celebration Of World Series Title
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WRIGLEYVILLE — Chicago Cubs fans celebrated into the early morning Thursday, waving "W" flags out of cars and doling out high-fives in honor of the team's first World Series title in 108 years.

They set off fireworks, climbed light poles and smashed a media van's windshield, roaming the streets past 4 a.m. and keeping police officers at work into the morning rush hour.

In the moments after the Cubs sealed the championship, fans from the bars flooded Clark Street. Many tried to make it to the Wrigley Field marquee, only to find their paths blocked by Illinois State troopers forming solid lines around the intersection.

Fans crammed onto Clark Street as close to Addison as possible, jockeying for good positions for photos with the marquee, which read "World Series Champions."

Several shimmied up light poles, climbed on restaurant planters and stood on top of vehicles. Officers surrounded one man until he came down, while another fell, according to media reports. First responders were called to assist him.

By 1:30 a.m., crowds dissipated. Still, factions that traveled north and south required additional police response. Along Belmont Avenue, clusters of people in Cubs gear wandered as far as Southport Avenue past 3 a.m., jamming traffic.

Street sweepers managed to get down Clark Street around 2 a.m., just after the bars closed.

Additional police were called to Clark and Byron and Irving Park Road around 2 a.m. At Racine and Belmont, about 50 officers responded around 3 a.m. after reports of large crowds.

As the night wore on, unconfirmed scanner reports called for multiple vehicles to keep crowds from climbing onto a Chicago Fire truck at Addison and Ashland.

Social media accounts that track city police radio communications reported bottles and bricks being thrown at officers. Multiple prisoner transport vehicles responded to the scene.

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Undercover FBI agents and other officers were perched on rooftops along Clark Street, while Chicago officers formed long lines down the middle of Clark trying to keep traffic flowing in designated aisles.

Streets did not reopen until 4 a.m., with police on horseback proceeding down Clark beforehand to clear the streets of pedestrians.

At least nine people were arrested in Wrigleyville before the end of Game 7, according to the anonymously run blog Crime in Wrigleyville + Boystown.

The Cubs and Wrigley Field are 95 percent owned by an entity controlled by a trust established for the benefit of the family of Joe Ricketts, owner and CEO of DNAinfo.com. Joe Ricketts has no direct involvement in the management of the iconic team.

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