By Todd Feurer, Marissa Sulek
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CHICAGO (WBBM) — A Chicago man is facing theft charges, after police found nearly $1 million worth of apparently stolen shoes in a West Side warehouse.
Erick Lujano Bautista, 26, was arrested on Friday, and has been charged with one felony count of theft.
Cook County Sheriff’s officials said investigators executed a search warrant at a warehouse Lujano Bautista was subleasing in the 1500 block of South Western Avenue on Friday, after learning a large number of stolen shoes were being stored there.
Police found thousands of Nike and New Balance brand shoes believed to have been stolen inside the warehouse investigators determined Lujano Bautista was not an authorized seller of either Nike or New Balance brand shoes.
This was not the first time Lujano Bautista was tied to such a theft ring. He was arrested in another high-end theft ring in Lyons back in 2023.
Police said millions of dollars’ worth of shoes were found in another warehouse on that occasion.
At his first court appearance on Sunday, Lujano Bautista was allowed to go free from custody while awaiting trial, but was ordered to surrender his passport, to report to a probation officer, and to attend all upcoming court dates while awaiting trial.
“I think this is where we might need to think about revisiting a little bit the conditions in which people are released,” said Rob Karr, president and chief executive officer of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
Karr said seeing the same offenders repeatedly is disheartening.
“I think it fits the pattern we often see,” he said. “The vast majority of retail thefts are committed by repeat criminals.”
Karr said 70% of people charged with retail theft steal repeatedly. Many get their supply from smash-and-grab burglaries, or from stealing products off cargo trains.
Karr said state law enforcement is using a new technology to share information on theft rings and alert retailers to crime in the area. The technology also helps prosecutors get information more easily.
The new system is called Auror. It allows police om multiple jurisdictions to be on high alert for offenders in an area.
“It will certainly help, for example, someone in DeKalb who says: ‘Wait a second, we just picked up someone who fits the MO of someone who’s committing a crime in Belvidere, and someone who did the same thing in Naperville. Maybe there’s a connection,’” Karr said.
The Auror system just went into use in Illinois.
“It’s certainly been successful in other states,” Karr said. “We would expect it to be successful here.”
As for Lujano Bautista, in 2023, he had his charges dropped. CBS News Chicago reached out to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office to ask why, and did not hear back.
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