(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Sheriff's police in Cook County are sharing details about a Chicago man who they say stole thousands of shoes.
Sheriff Tom Dart says the amount of stolen gym shoes is staggering.
“Over 20,000 pairs of Nike shoes and about 1,700 pairs of New Balance shoes that we were able to get through the search warrant. And these are obviously wildly expensive and you know it's upwards of a million dollars just that group that we've gotten so far.”
The gym shoes were recovered from a warehouse on the 1500 block of South Western, which was being sub-leased by Erick Lujano Bautista..
He faces felony theft charges.
Sheriff Dart says crimes like these hurt everyone.
“This is why people like up and leave, why they close stores, why they don't bring new stores in. It's a thing that has been devastating. You know, malls, you know, you know, places like Michigan Avenue that have never had problems in the past, you know, I've had problems because of this, so this is part of a much bigger picture.”
Investigators say the gym shoes were stolen between the distributor and stores.
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