LINCOLN SQUARE — A trio of thieves picked the wrong store to target on New Year's Eve.
When three teens walked into Ruff Haus Pets, 4652 N. Rockwell St., shortly before noon, staff was already on guard, having been warned by co-workers that a crew of adolescents had cased the shop twice in the past week, scared off both times by employees' dogs.
Saturday was different.
Ruff Haus manager Ryan, who preferred not to give his last name, was working pooch-less. While two of the teens managed to distract him with a well thought out question about dog biscuits, the third nabbed the store's iPod.
The thieves were out the door before Ryan noticed the sudden absence of music in the shop, tipping him off to the theft.
"They took the iPod and some catnip, because it looks like this," said Ryan, holding up a bag of what could easily be mistaken for marijuana.
These stories almost always end with a call to 911 and the filing of a police report that will, in all probability, gather dust until the rapture or alien invasion, whichever comes first.
Not on Ryan's watch.
He grabbed a pair of bolt cutters — to do what with he couldn't say — told his co-worker to mind the store and took off after the thieves.
"I wasn't chasing them, I was following," Ryan clarified, for those who might dub his actions rash.
He placed multiple calls to police as he tracked the thieves from a safe distance, watching them ping-pong from apartment building to apartment building, ripping open package deliveries and stealing items as they went.
When police caught up with Ryan near Virginia and Lawrence avenues, they captured two of the teens immediately — a 17-year-old male and a 17-year-old female, according to police reports — but a third fled.
Ryan said he and a "bad-ass lady cop" took off in pursuit after the boy, who led them on a chase north and south of Lawrence, jumping fences into Gross Park and neighboring yards until he was finally cornered.
"The kids had cellphones, watches and jewelry. They wiped our iPod, they reset it completely in five minutes — they knew what they were doing," Ryan said.
He later learned the teen who ran off had an outstanding warrant and the girl, who was wearing an ankle bracelet, was back on house arrest. Charges, according to police, include misdemeanor theft and, in the case of the female, resisting an officer and battery.
Though he acted on adrenaline in the moment, Ryan said that even with the benefit of hindsight, he'd do the same again.
Why step out the door and follow the kids?
It wasn't about retrieving stolen property, he said.
"I'm definitely not going to get shot over an $80 iPod," Ryan said.
But the "Rockwell area is like a small town," he said, and the fact that a "bunch of punk kids can go into a nice neighborhood and rob people" is something he refuses to tolerate.
"I'm not scared of kids who think they can bully people," said Ryan.
Willie Nelson, the pet of an employee at Ruff Haus, helped chase off thieves the first time they cased the shop. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
The incident has taught the already vigilant Ruff Haus staff a couple of important lessons, though.
Manager Crystal Nelson was the first to confront the teens, the day after Christmas.
"They kept alternating walking in and out, trying to distract me ... hoods up, hands in pockets ... they were not being discreet at all," she recalled.
"They said, 'We're cold, we need money for the train,'" Nelson said.
Her growling dog finally got the kids to leave, but even though she was rattled enough to lock the door after the teens, and a customer stayed with her for an hour and a half until closing, Nelson didn't call police.
"I was trying to give them [the teens] the benefit of the doubt," a mistake she won't make in the future, she said.
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