“A number of vehicles were leaving. We managed to stop one of them,” said Hibbs, adding that no injuries were reported.
Authorities are questioning those who were arrested to determine the identities of the other suspects, Hibbs said.
“There was a mob of people,” Brett Barrett said. “The police were flying in. It was like a scene out of a movie. It was insane. … It was a scary scene for a moment.”
Police have not yet estimated a dollar amount for the stolen items, Hibbs said.
The incident followed a series of similar lootings Friday night in Union Square and surrounding areas in San Francisco, including at a Louis Vuitton store, a Burberry store, a jewelry store, a Bloomingdale’s, a Walgreens, cannibis dispensaries and even an eyeglass shop, Police Chief Bill Scott said at a news conference Saturday.
Eight people were arrested after Friday night’s break-ins, Scott said. As police go through video footage from the scenes, the chief said he expects more arrests.
It was a concerted effort, he said, and the perpetrators aimed to overwhelm police.
“Their plan was hoping that we wouldn’t be here, but we were. And some of them think they got away with it, but I am confident, I am confident, that there will be more arrests to follow,” Scott said.
All of the eight arrested were “young adults,” he said.
Police also seized two vehicles and two guns, Scott said.
The city will “flood” the area with police going forward, the chief said.
“We will do what we need to do to put an end to this madness,” Scott said. What happened, he said, was “absolutely unacceptable in all forms.”
In surveillance video provided by the Oak Brook Police Department, 14 suspects can be seen grabbing items from shelves.
“Once they entered the store, they pulled out the garbage bags from their coats and started filling them with merchandise,” Oak Brook Police Chief James Kruger said, according to WLS.
The suspects used three vehicles to drive away. Police recovered one of them, a Dodge Charger reported stolen last month in Chicago, WLS reported.