Police: Man claiming to be deputy robs cell phone store

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Police are investigating after a man who claimed he was a Cook County Sheriff's Deputy robbed a cell phone store in the 400-block of South Clark Tuesday night.

The store owner told Eyewitness News the man claimed he was a Cook County Sheriff's Deputy who was just getting off work at the nearby Metropolitan Correctional Center, and that he needed the phones for the jail. The owner says the man flashed a badge and had a gun in his holster.

He talked the owner into opening a display case so he could look at some phones. While the owner went to repair another phone, surveillance video shows the man grab several phones and then leave the store without the owner even realizing it.

It is unclear if the man really is a Cook County deputy or if he was just claiming to be one to gain the trust of the store's owner. The owner says at one point the man asked to use the store phone to call his phone carrier to get assistance in repairing his phone.

Police have been dusting the store's display case and phone for fingerprints. They have not made any arrests.