7 businesses broken into at strip mall in unincorporated Des Plaines, sheriff says

COOK COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) -- The Cook County Sheriff's Office is investigating a series of overnight break-ins at a strip mall in the north suburbs.

Sheriff's police responded to the burglaries around 2:54 a.m. Thursday in unincorporated Des Plaines.

Multiple employees and business owners all told ABC7 all the same thing: Thieves smashed broke in by smashing doors and windows, grabbed cash and got away.

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Seven businesses were broken into at Ballard and Potter in unincorporated Maine Township, in the 9300 block of Ballard Road in Des Plaines, the Cook County Sheriff's Office said.

Surveillance video captured one of the incidents. A masked person could be seen entering a small grocery store through a broken glass door, climbing over the counter, grabbing cash and walking right out.

Investigators say there were four suspects involved One by one, the group hit seven businesses overnight, smashing glass doors and windows to get inside.

Julieta Krohn, part-owner and cashier at La Guadalupana Mercado, says thieves took about fifty dollars but caused them hundreds of dollars-worth of damage.

"I thought it was only this store but we find out that it was the entire mall from one corner to another," Krohn said. "For nothing. They destroyed a lot stores for some change probably and we got stuck with it."

Krohn says they just opened their shop a month ago and were devastated when they got the call.

"You come in the morning and you just see your store being destroyed. Everything was on the floor, everything," Krohn said. "They took chips-everything was a mess in here."

Investigators shared images of a silver Toyota the four suspects got away in.

Anyone with information that could help the Cook County Sheriff's Office has been asked to contact detectives.