Thieves steal packages after UPS truck damaged by Little Village viaduct

CHICAGO (CBS) – A UPS semi truck shredded its roof going under a railroad viaduct in Little Village just before noon on Thursday.

Chicago police said the semi struck the viaduct, causing damage to the truck. It was unclear how the incident happened.

The viaduct near 21st Street and Kedzie Avenue has a sign that says "13 feet," but the truck was about 13-and-a-half feet tall. There was a massive effort by several UPS drivers and a tow truck employees to get the packages off the damaged truck and onto a new UPS truck.

Nearly two dozen employees were working to get the hundreds of packages off-loaded from the truck and onto their destination. The semi with the torn roof was towed away.

Police said between 12 and 15 people started stealing packages from the truck. It was unclear how many were taken.

"Either way, you're supposed to ich up under there and see before you just, you know what I'm saying?" said one witness to the cleanup who has worked as a truck driver. "An experienced driver should know that."

In a statement, UPS said, "We are aware of a situation involving one of our drivers that occurred this morning. We are cooperating with the responding authorities in their investigation and respectfully defer questions about this incident to them."

No one was in custody in connection with the stolen packages.