My kind of town, Chicago was. With apologies to Frank Sinatra.

I grew up in the upper west corner of Indiana on the Illinois state line, close to Lake Michigan. For all intents and purposes, part of Greater Chicagoland. My high school — then college — buds and I ran all over the city, from the Southside and Greektown to the Northside and Wrigleyville to Lakeshore Drive and the Navy Pier.

There was nowhere we were afraid to go, nor did the thought ever cross our minds.

My, how those days — and the Windy City— have changed.

In this case, we’re not even talking about the bloody streets of the Southside. Nope, in the latest example of everyday life in clueless Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago, brazen thieves stole a backhoe, drove it down a Northside city street, and promptly used it to break into an ATM — from which they took the cash.

Chicago police said a stolen backhoe was used to smash an ATM Friday in the Rogers Park neighborhood. https://t.co/73DQoOrj0k

— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) February 12, 2022

As reported by Chicago’s CBS affiliate WBBM-TV, Chicago police said the backhoe was stolen from a construction site in Calumet Heights on Thursday afternoon and driven 20 miles to a neighborhood in Rogers Park, where at 1:00 a.m. on Friday, they used it to destroy the ATM and steal the cash.

Rogers Park resident Gina Stewart was beside herself over the brazen robbery, as transcribed by WBBM:

This is crazy. This is insane! What is wrong with us. This is what we’re doing now? This is what we’ve resorted to? This is absolutely insane.

Let’s help Gina out, a bit, shall we?

“Crazy”? I suppose. “Insane”? It depends on who she’s talking about. (See: “Lori Lightfoot.”)

“What is wrong with us?” Nothing is wrong with Gina or people like her. What is wrong is wrong with the Lightfoot and her feckless, reckless policies, and the Democrat-controlled Chicago City Council — the same thing that is wrong with Democrat-controlled cities across America.

And yes, this is what they have resorted to allowing — if not downright encouraging. How so? By treating cell doors like revolving doors, obscenely low — if not cashless — bails, and pathetically-reduced prison sentences.

“I’ve lived in Chicago all my life,” Stewart told WBBM, “and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Marshall Jenkins, who works at a nearby laundry, asked, “How could somebody do something like this and nobody hear anything?” Great question. Unless “somebody” did hear it— and chose to say nothing. Another Chicagoan said: “I’ve seen where a lot of crooks they will take the small ATMs but this takes the cake.” But it was lifelong Chicagoan Gina Stewart who appeared the most upset, as she reiterated:

They took this tractor, came all the way across the city to do this? And nobody says anything? They can steal a tractor and come all the way over here? This is crazy! We have lost our minds.”

Meanwhile, Lori Lightfoot and her mind were unavailable for comment.

WATCH: Thieves in the Democrat-run city of Chicago used a stolen backhoe to break into an ATM.

"This is crazy, this is insane. What is wrong with us? This is what we’re doing now? " pic.twitter.com/g4gqzBuhuH

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 17, 2022

While I cannot — nor did I try to — connect BackhoeGate to Chicago’s out-of-control and ever-worsening violent crime rate, I did suggest that Lori Lightfoot’s approach to her city’s rampant crime has been inept at best — and a disgusting travesty at worst. As reported by my colleague Sister Toldjah in December, Lightfoot’s stupid response to Chicago’s smash-and-grab looting spree was off the charts. Even for her.

Yup, advised the intrepid mayor, if you own a business in downtown Chicago, you should do more to protect your store. You know, because Chicago’s finest are busy on the bloody Southside, valiantly fighting crime like a boss. Wait— Lightfoot doesn’t allow that, either. Never mind.

If you own a business in downtown Chicago ⁦⁦@chicagosmayor⁩ says you should do more to protect your store.

Then why pay such high property taxes? ⁦@MorningAnswer⁩ pic.twitter.com/jlTWSMv4t7

— Amy “null & void” Jacobson (@AmyJacobson) December 6, 2021

Related on RedState:

Watch: It Gets Tense When Reporter Blasts Lightfoot Over Chicago Murder Rate

Texts Reveal How Lori Lightfoot Abandoned Chicago to BLM Riots

BREAKING: Shooting at Mall Near Chicago Results in at Least Four Injured