Oak Brook, a Chicago suburb, has seen an increase in retail thefts and burglaries. Police say that the main culprits are illegal border-crossers who recently arrived from Chicago.

Newsbreak reports that the Oak Brook Police Department has arrested 47 illegal aliens who have recently arrived in connection with retail thefts, home and car burglaries and other crimes just since October. This is a significant increase from last year’s 175 arrests.

The New York Post reported that officials of the suburb, which is located only 25 minutes from downtown Chicago and minutes south of O’Hare International Airport, where hundreds of illegals had been hiding for months, noted that thieves used bags lined with sheets tinfoil to try to defeat anti-theft devices installed at the entrances.

This problem has persisted in the suburbs, particularly inside the Oak Brook Shopping Mall.

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Oak Brook Police Department reports that as far back at 2021, a group of 14 people entered stores and stole everything they could.

The thefts began to increase in 2023.

Two newly arrived illegal aliens, for example, were arrested in October after they allegedly stole nearly $2,000 of clothing from Oak Brook Macy’s.

Abel Barrios Estava, 20, and Rafael Mata Torres, 25, were both identified as illegal Venezuelan aliens. Barrios-Estava is accused of stealing six items of clothing valued at over $300. Mata-Torres, meanwhile, was accused of stealing clothing worth over $1400.

A few weeks later, Luis Mendez Gomez (28 years old) and Frank Montez Davila (23 years old) were arrested on suspicion of stealing over $2,800 in merchandise from Oak Brook Macy’s.

The officers reported that they found the stolen items in the backpacks of the two men.

Bob Berlin, the State’s attorney for DuPage County, reported that in November, officials in the county warned about a group of five illegal immigrants from Venezuela, who were arrested in Oak Brook Macy’s and a Kohl’s Store, for committing dash-and grab robberies.

Two more Venezuelan migrants, who were staying in Chicago and were allegedly stealing merchandise worth hundreds of dollars from Macy’s a month later.

Edys Alberto Herera-Gotopo and Johan Gavidia Rojas were arrested after they entered the Oak Brook Macy’s store at 7 pm on a Friday. They allegedly grabbed clothing items as they fled.