🔨 NOT AGAIN! BRONZEVILLE BUSINESSES HIT IN ANOTHER STRING OF BREAK-INS

CHICAGO — Imagine getting up Sunday morning, heading to the business you worked your tail off to build, and instead of opening the doors for customers, you're sweeping up glass and figuring out how much somebody just cost you.

That's what several Bronzeville business owners were dealing with after thieves targeted at least three businesses on the 4600 block of South King Drive early Sunday morning.

And here's the part making people even angrier:

This neighborhood JUST dealt with another string of business burglaries.

🚨 THREE BUSINESSES HIT

Chicago police are investigating break-ins involving:

Bronzeville Soul

Hair Experts Bronzeville

Peach's Restaurant

At Bronzeville Soul, owner Mario Coleman said burglars stole the restaurant's cash register, damaged its point-of-sale system and caused damage to food and other items.

Coleman said the restaurant had already been targeted once within roughly the past year.

Next door at Hair Experts Bronzeville, owner Nicholas Byrd said burglars broke through the glass, ransacked the shop and stole expensive equipment.

Across the street, Peach's Restaurant was also vandalized badly enough that the restaurant planned to remain closed for several days while repairs were made.

💸 AND THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE FORGET

Somebody might look at this and say:

"Well, they only took a cash register."

ONLY?!

Baby, the register ain't the whole bill.

It's the shattered windows.

The broken doors.

The damaged equipment.

The lost inventory.

The security upgrades.

The insurance headache.

And then you're closed, which means you're losing money every hour somebody can't walk through that door.

All for somebody to possibly discover there wasn't much cash in the register in the first place.

Congratulations. You caused thousands of dollars in damage looking for $87.42 and some quarters. 😒

✊🏾 OWNERS SAY BLACK BUSINESSES ARE BEING TARGETED

Bronzeville Soul's Angie Price told ABC7 that businesses along 47th Street have been dealing with these crimes for some time and said owners believe someone is specifically targeting Black-owned businesses in the area.

Police have not publicly established that the burglaries were racially motivated, so that remains the business owners' concern rather than a confirmed finding by investigators.

But their frustration isn't happening in a vacuum.

Just over a week earlier, police reported at least six businesses burglarized across Bronzeville and Hyde Park.

In those incidents, burglars smashed doors or windows and targeted registers, cash and at least one safe.

So when business owners say they're tired?

They're TIRED tired.

❤️ THESE AREN'T JUST STOREFRONTS

Peach's owner Cliff Rome said he's been invested in Bronzeville for 25 years and has worked on workforce-development efforts intended to help prevent the same type of crime now affecting his own businesses.

That's what makes this sting.

These aren't giant corporations where somebody in another state looks at a spreadsheet and writes off the loss.

These are neighborhood businesses.

People know the owners.

People eat there.

People get their hair cut there.

People work there.

Money circulates there.

When you tear up a neighborhood business, you're tearing up something your own community uses.

🚔 WHERE THE INVESTIGATION STANDS

Chicago police say the investigation remains underway.

As of the latest reporting, no one was in custody.

And hopefully whoever is doing this gets caught before another owner wakes up to that dreaded phone call:

"Somebody broke into the business."

💥 THE BOOM BOTTOM LINE

We say we want more businesses in our neighborhoods.

We say we want Black businesses to thrive.

We say we want jobs, restaurants, barbershops and locally owned companies investing in the community.

Then somebody comes through at 4 in the morning and tears the damn place apart.

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.

And stealing a register from a restaurant in 2026?

Half the customers paid with a card!

You risked jail for a metal drawer full of receipt paper and somebody's emergency roll of quarters. 😩

Support these businesses.

They shouldn't have to keep paying the price for somebody else's foolishness.

730 BOOM RADIOIT HITS DIFFERENT. EVERY TIME. BOOM! 💥