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Vandals caught on camera trashing warehouse in Chicago's west suburbs

By
Sabrina Franza
Sabrina Franza
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Sabrina Franza is a general assignment reporter for CBS News Chicago. She has a passion for pizza, politics, and impartiality.
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Sabrina Franza

/ CBS Chicago

A group of vandals was caught on camera breaking into a west suburban warehouse and trashing the building, causing about $30,000 in damage.

Nick Burke, project manager at Hecker & Co., a 70-year-old family-owned electrical contractor, said six people smashed the windows of their warehouse in Eola in unincorporated DuPage County near Aurora. He believes they squeezed through at least one of the broken windows to get inside.

Surveillance video showed a group of people walking outside the warehouse before going inside and spending more than half an hour spray-painting profanities and trashing the facility.

One of the vandals was seen wielding a hammer, and another wielded an axe.

"They were taking paint cans, and they were smashing it with an axe, and throwing paint all over everything," Burke said.

Vandals also kicked items inside the warehouse, tossed a ladder, and threw something at a ceiling light, before it appeared they took a group selfie.

Afterward, they tried to cover a surveillance camera in spray paint.

"It's going to take a crew at least two weeks to clean up inside," Burke said, estimating it will cost around $30,000 for cleanup and repairs.

Burke said some tools were taken, along with a colleague's personal belongings.

"We have an employee who was moving, and he's storing all his personal stuff here right now, and they've vandalized all of his stuff too, which is just sad," he said.

Burke said he can't understand the motive for the vandalism.

"We're a family-owned business, and it's just disheartening to see something like this happen," he said. "We just would like for the kids that did this, or whoever it was, to have to come out and at least help clean it up, at a bare minimum."

Burke said the DuPage County Sheriff's Office responded after the break-in early Saturday. Sheriff's officials declined to comment on their investigation.

Cleanup was just getting underway on Wednesday, and is expected to take a few weeks. Burke said he's looking into installing more surveillance cameras.

Burke said before Saturday's incident, someone else broke the glass on the warehouse door, prompting him to make a sign reading, "I have you on video breaking the windwos. I've called the police." 

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