How $650,000 in stolen Nikes ended up in Des Plaines

How did a truckload of Nike shoes en route to Dallas, before being boosted in Memphis, Tennessee, end up in Des Plaines?

The Cook County Sheriff’s Organized Retail Crime Unit is working to figure that out, after its investigators tracked the stolen footwear — nearly $650,000 worth, in all — to a cargo distribution facility in the 1300 block of South Mount Prospect Road.

“Those stolen items were going somewhere, and it’s up to us to determine where,” Cmdr. Michael Ware, who leads the unit, told us in a phone interview Wednesday.

The heist, according to Ware, is an example of the high-tech methods organized criminals are now using to pull off major thefts. While old-fashioned “fell-off-a-truck” thefts still happen, crime rings have gotten far more sophisticated.

This theft occurred Aug. 21, when someone showed up at Nike’s logistics facility in Memphis with fake documents to claim a truck trailer filled with shoes, the sheriff’s office said.

Criminal organizations will hack into transport companies’ computer systems to get information about upcoming shipments, then create realistic-looking counterfeit documents to claim them — something Ware labeled “cloning the load.”

Nike representatives learned two days later that the shipment had been picked up with bogus documents and, instead of heading to Dallas as intended, driven to the Chicago area.

Tipped off about the theft and using GPS tracking information that placed the truck in the area, Ware said sheriff’s investigators located it in Des Plaines and recovered the missing merchandise.

If they hadn’t? Ware said stolen items like these wind up in the hands of fencing operations, which sell them via online retailers like Amazon, marketplaces like Facebook, auction sites like eBay, or even in brick-and-mortar stores.

An investigation into who was behind the theft is ongoing, Ware said.

Just the facts

The sheriff's office launched its Organized Retail Crime Unit in 2023, following a spike in retail crime during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then, the unit has recovered more than $13.6 million in stolen merchandise and made more than 2,500 arrests, according to the office.

“It became an opportunity for us to make a difference,” Ware said.

Avoid this hero’s journey

If you’re like us and eager to see Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed “The Odyssey,” but haven’t been able to get to the theater, be warned.

Websites promising viewers a chance to stream the film online may in reality be fronts for scammers hoping to steal your financial or personal information, according to the Better Business Bureau.

According to the fraud prevention organization, the websites can look “remarkably legitimate” and feature professional-looking movie graphics, customer reviews, ratings and even offer the film in different languages.

“Scammers understand that when millions of people are excited about a movie, they are going to be searching for it online,” Steve J. Bernas, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Chicago, said in a statement this week. “They know that offering something for free can make people click quickly without stopping to ask the most important question: Who am I really dealing with?”

The scheme typically starts with an advertisement or search result promising free access to the movie. Consumers click through to a website that appears to offer a legitimate streaming service.

To watch the movie, however, consumers are asked to create an account that requires a credit or debit card number to activate a “free trial.”

“Instead of gaining access to ‘The Odyssey,’ consumers may have just handed their financial information to criminals who can use it for fraudulent transactions or future scams,” Bernas said.

Besides stealing your information, the sites can also download malware on your devices that can access usernames and passwords.

What should you watch for? Cybersecurity researchers have reported scams involving supposed “The Odyssey” downloads that were actually Windows executable files, according to the BBB. A file ending in “.exe” is a program, not a movie, and consumers should never install unfamiliar software simply because a website says it is necessary to watch a movie.

copsandcrime@dailyherald.com