Chile! An insanely massive shoe assortment led to a person’s current arrest in Cook dinner County, Chicago. Prosecutors are accusing Erick Lujano Bautista of storing about $1 million price of Nike and New Steadiness sneakers.
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In keeping with Fox 32 Chicago, police suspect the merchandise had been stolen. Organized Retail Crime (ORC) investigators linked Bautista to the case after studying he was the sublease holder on the warehouse the sneakers had been in. The sneakers first got here to gentle on Janaury 31. On that day, officers executed a search warrant for the area on the 1500 block of South Western Avenue and arrested Erick the subsequent day.
Moreover, the Cook dinner County Sheriff’s Workplace confirmed that Lujano Bautista will not be a licensed vendor for Nike or New Steadiness. Questions stay in regards to the sneakers’ origin and the warehouse’s size of exercise.
In the meantime, Erick Lujano Bautista reportedly appeared in courtroom for the primary time on Sunday (February 2), at some point after his arrest. Regardless of the big quantity of merchandise concerned, he was allowed to go free pending different courtroom proceedings. He faces a felony theft cost.
For context, Cook dinner County’s ORC unit launched in 2023. In 2024, the crew reportedly recovered over $3.6 million in stolen merchandise. Nonetheless, the restoration of the Nike and New Steadiness items brings that whole to $4.5 million within the final 9 months.
By the way in which, stolen sneakers aren’t a problem that solely impacts the Chicago space. Again in October, Washington D.C. police issued warnings to residents about robbers focusing on their toes! Relatively than Nike and New Steadiness, thieves had been aiming for designer manufacturers resembling Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton.
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