South Side thieves have targeted luxury cars in 40 wealthy towns across the Chicago area from Lake Forest to Barrington to Hinsdale, police said.
The bandits slipped into unlocked cars and drove away using keys or fobs they found inside cup holders or consoles, officials say.
Chicago police think in 2016 alone at least 100 cars have been stolen from the suburbs by gangs operating on the South Side.
Reportedly, some of the car thieves referred to wealthy suburbs like Lake Forest, Evanston and Hinsdale as "candyland" - places where residents are unsuspecting and pickings are plentiful.
Most have been recovered in four South Side police districts: Wentworth, Grand Crossing, South Chicago and Calumet, he said. One owner couldn't recognize his car because the thieves had tinted the windows.
Police have arrested about 15 suspects, most of them juvenile gang members. Detectives believe they were using the cars while committing armed robberies and shooting at rival gang members. Detectives used license plate readers to recover some of the vehicles.
Tiffany Knaul's nearly-new Land Rover was swiped from her Hinsdale driveway and recovered after a police chase that ended with two men on the run and the luxury SUV embedded in a South Side tre.
Ben Bradley: "What did they find in the car?"
Tiffany Knaul: "Guns and ammunition."
Bradley: "In the car you use to haul your kids around?"
Knaul: "Yes, in the back seat was my son's Little League equipment and a tennis racquet."
The thefts started on a cold winter day on the South Side after gang members searched Google for mansions they could target, Chicago Police Lt. Ed Wodnicki said.
"Every time you'd see a real high end car in a location that was totally out of place, but the plate wasn't coming back stolen, we had them get out, run the VIN and these cars are all coming up stolen from the suburbs," Wodnicki said.
On Aug. 9, Wodnicki was conducting a sting involving a laptop computer stolen in the northern suburbs. A tracking device showed the computer was on the South Side.
Police set up a ruse, offering $500 for the recovery of the computer. Wodnicki dressed in civilian clothes and met a man who sought the reward.
Wodnicki arrested the man in a bank parking lot. Wodnicki found a loaded .40-caliber pistol and a high-capacity magazine in the car the man was driving.
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