A vehicle rammed into a CVS pharmacy in Kansas City’s Brookside neighborhood early Friday, and police confirmed they’re investigating the incident an attempted break-in in a neighborhood that’s seen a rash of thefts and property crime in recent months.
Law enforcement was called to the CVS at the intersection of 63rd Street and Brookside Boulevard shortly before 2:30 a.m. Friday after a vehicle ran into the building, according to a statement released by a Kansas City police spokesperson.
Officers arrived and found damage to the front of the building, but the vehicle was not still at the scene. Police said Friday they have not yet determined if any items were taken from the store.
Sean Ackerson, executive director of the Southtown Council, a community group, said a truck was seen smashing into the front of the CVS, and that people involved with the break-in then tried to steal an ATM before taking off. The ATM could be seen lying mangled on the sidewalk outside the business Friday.
A temporary new entrance was put in place at the store, which reopened after repairs.
‘Overwhemingly frustrating’
The incident is another example of property crime frustrations business owners in the area have dealt with in recent months, according to Ackerson, who has helped organize efforts to address crime issues in the Brookside and Waldo neighborhoods.
Break-ins have frequently targeted restaurants and food services businesses, he said, with thieves taking off with small amounts of cash or even no cash at all. Business owners are then left to deal with thousands of dollars in repairs for things like doors and windows.
“What’s been happening to the businesses in general, break-ins aren’t new, major shoplifting is not new to businesses, but the rate at which we’ve been seeing them is,” he said.
“In the last year, we’ve probably had a dozen businesses that have been broken into in just the Brookside Shops, and that’s amplified across the city,” Ackerson said.
“It’s just overwhelmingly frustrating right now,” he added.
Residents have been vocal about this upswing in property crime issues, and a large gathering Ackerson helped organize on August 14 addressed the topic. The Brookside Business Association and the Waldo Business Association’s goal in raising attention about the issue isn’t to shame police, prosecutors or elected officials, but to find fixes — and ones that can work elsewhere too, Ackerson said.
At that meeting, about 200 residents and business owners met with police and community leaders to share concerns about crime in the area. Police said at that gathering that property crime has been on the rise since 2021, and pointed to a trend of declining police force numbers in recent years.
Earlier this week, police arrested two youths as suspects in a series of auto thefts and other property crimes in the two neighborhoods, and said they were continuing to look at whether they were linked to other crimes.
“We’re not trying to take resources from anybody else, we’re not trying to take anybody else’s attention,” Ackerson said, acknowledging there are other areas in the city that have it worse when it comes to crime.
“In fact, this is the last thing we want to be talking about, but it’s happening at a rate that we’ve gotta find a solution and so we’re going to be vocal about it,” he said.
The Star’s Robert Cronkleton and Ilana Arougheti contributed reporting to this story.
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