Vehicle Drives Into Village Square Mall

A man drove a vehicle through one of the glass entrances to Village Square Mall early Thursday morning and traveled through much of the mall. The incident is believed related to a break-in at Zales Jewelers in the mall.

Aaron Wilson of America's Groove Record Store in the mall has surveillance video showing the incident. The vehicle was backed through the glass entrance on the west side of the mall nearest Wilson's store. The unit then traveled down the hallway and then headed south down the main hallway through the mall. The vehicle even stopped in front of Wilson's store and a man believed to be the driver of the vehicle is seen out of the vehicle and peering into Wilson's store before walking away.

Effingham Police Chief Jeffrey Fuesting said early Thursday afternoon that police have recovered the suspect vehicle. Fuesting said police are pursuing a number of leads and "making headway" toward solving the case. 

Fuesting said an overnight maintenance person at the mall contacted police at 3:18am about the incident.

Also during that same time period, someone broke into Zales Jewelers. One of the front glass panels of the store was broken out and the glass on one of the display cases by that area was smashed.

(A SHOT OF ZALES JEWELERS)

Zales store officials said any information as to whether anything is missing has to come from the corporate offices.

The broken out entrance to the mall was boarded up and the mall is operating as usual.