Following the money: Inside Cook County crackdown on cargo theft, stolen goods

A theft doesn’t end when stolen merchandise leaves a shipping container. For Cook County sheriff’s investigators, the next question is who will buy it — and who will profit.That pursuit brought investigators to Future Fashion on West 47th Street in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood. FOX 32 accompanied officers during a search of the store following an undercover operation that led to charges against its owner and an employee.The investigation illustrates a central challenge in fighting cargo and retail theft: tracing stolen goods through businesses and buyers suspected of putting them back on the market.A retailer’s tipCook County Sheriff’s Police Commander Michael Ware said the Future Fashion investigation began with a tip from Victoria’s Secret."Victoria’s Secret reached out to me and said, we see a lot of our products that’s inside of the store that haven’t even been released yet," Ware said.Ware oversees specialized units including the Community Safety Team, Organized Retail Cri