Smash and grab: Thieves crash SUV into Detroit clothing store for robbery

Thieves crash SUV into clothing store on Detroit's Avenue of Fashion

The City Man store clothing store on Livernois near Seven Mile is boarded up in the aftermath Wednesday afternoon.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A clothing store on Detroit's Avenue of Fashion was hit by robbers this morning. They ran out with thousands of dollars of merchandise.

The backstory:

The City Man store clothing store on Livernois near Seven Mile is boarded up in the aftermath Wednesday afternoon.

Thieves crashed a Jeep Cherokee through the front doors at about 3:45 a.m. Six suspects jumped out and went to work grabbing everything they could find.

Within minutes they drove off in a dark-colored Dodge Durango with thousands of dollars worth of clothing.

FOX 2 spoke with several businesses on the Avenue of Dashion who say it is devastating.

"It’s terrible to see," said Joe Lanier of Terry's Wigs and Lashes. "And this is the second time I think they’ve been broken into recently. You know, it happens sometimes. We hate it as business owners. It’s bad fod business definitely, especially with the new businesses that are coming up here. We hate to see this kind of thing happen."

Joscedia Springfield manages six stores at Avenue of Fashion.

"I was surprised at first because this is fairly a safe neighborhood and everybody kind of knows everybody and everybody looks out for everybody," she said. "I was surprised because before they actually moved on the block we really didn’t have any problems.

"I’m not saying no problems didn’t exist - but for the most part, this is a very safe neighborhood."

Dolphin Michael is the president of the Avenue of Fashion Business Association.

"We’re sorry that it happened, they’ve been here almost two years," he said. "It was an eight-minute response time from the 12th Precinct, so they did a very good job of that. There was a lot of damage done. But the business is good, the area is good."

Police are looking for the suspects.