Police from Arlington Heights received a report Sunday, May 15, 2022 that a commercial burglary occurred about 7:30 a.m. Sunday at Arlington Nissan, 1100 West Dundee Road in Arlington Heights, according to the Arlington Heights Police Department. Police were inside the business investigating the commercial burglary when at about 11:45 a.m. Sunday two of the vehicles were taken from the dealership parking lot, according to a former employee who learned about the crime from an existing employee. Key fobs were also taken during the burglary.
Police discovered at about 11:45 a.m. that a black pickup truck and a gold Range Rover were stolen from the dealership parking lot on Sunday after five other vehicles were stolen earlier in the day. The offenders were connected to a silver Audi chase vehicle. The three vehicles and offenders were last seen southbound on Route 53 from Euclid Avenue. The vehicles were traveling in excess of 100 MPH at times. At least one of the vehicles had a GPS tracker activated. Some or all of the vehicles were tracked on I-290 EAST near Mannheim Road for awhile.
A police helicopter discovered the gold Range Rover while it was driven southbound on the Dan Ryan Expressway. Incorrect tracking information showed the Range Rover stationary in suburban Broadview, at a location where Broadview police officers found no Range Rover.
The Range Rover was followed by a police helicopter southbound on the Dan Ryan and then southbound on I-57 by about 1:07 p.m. The driver of the silver Audi split off from traveling with the gold Range Rover before the Range Rover was on I-57.
The driver of the Range Rover exited at Sibley Boulevard, but then turned around and went back up the wrong way on the exit ramp and turned southbound on I-57 again. The driver took I-80 EAST and then headed northbound on I-294.
Harvey and Markham police assisted with the tracking at this point. The driver of the Range Rover exited at 159th Street to Dixie Highway, continuing northbound at a high rate of speed and continued on surface streets.
The Range Rover became disabled about 1:26 p.m. — possibly running out of gas. The driver, wearing white shoes and dark pants, bailed out of the Range Rover and began running at 151st Street and Lincoln. The driver immediately ran into a backyard on Winchester and jumped into the window of a house. Police on the surface streets immediately captured the suspect at a house in the 15100 block of South Winchester by about 1:33 p.m. The driver of the stolen gold Range Rover was taken into custody.
The locations of the black Chevrolet pickup truck and the silver Audi were unknown as of Sunday afternoon, and descriptions of the other vehicles were not released by the Arlington Heights Police Department.
One of the stolen vehicles was taken from the front row of the dealership parking lot along the sidewalk on the north side of Dundee Road. Broken vehicle glass, four tire patch outs from an apparent 4-wheel drive transmission, run over and damaged shrubs, and muddy tire tracks heading westbound on the sidewalk on the north side of Dundee Road Sunday were visible at the scene Sunday afternoon.
Palatine Police Department and Cook County Sheriff’s Deputies assisted Arlington Heights Police Department at the scene at Arlington Nissan. Illinois State Police troopers, and police from Chicago, Harvey, Markham and Maywood assisted Arlington Heights Police Department along the route of the offenders.
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