EVANSTON, IL — Days after its owner announced it was closing, a beloved bar in Evanston was ransacked by Northwestern University students, staff said. Police said they're reviewing surveillance tape and employees are still searching for stolen items after more than a hundred students allegedly looted Tommy Nevin's Pub last week. Staff tell Patch a mob of mostly undergraduates tried to steal everything that wasn't nailed down between 11 p.m. Thursday and 1 a.m. Friday, leaving the bar barren inside.

Owner Rohit Sahajpal announced the imminent closure of Nevin's at 1450 Sherman Ave. during public comment at a council meeting Nov. 13. Later in the meeting, aldermen voted to approve construction of a 273-unit, 15-story mixed-use tower on the site, but Sahajpal confirmed the site was already listed for sale and revenue had been declining for years. Three days later the pub began filling up with Northwestern undergrads earlier than usual, according to staff. Thursday is a popular night for students at the bar, which hosts about 300 on a normal week.

That night, Nevin's reached capacity at about 11:45 p.m., according to bartender Dustin Osakada. He said the place was so crowded it was impossible to see the wall or the back exits, so about 20 minutes passed before employees realized what was happening.

The first person to notice was a manager at the neighboring Prairie Moon Restaurant, who saw students streaming out of the bar carrying stolen memorabilia. Some of them appeared to be photographing themselves with stolen items, staff said.

"By the time we caught on, everything was taken off our walls. They took everything. They took absolutely every item that was hanging on our walls," Osakada said. Thieves stripped the walls, they stole dart boards, pool cues, balls and more. "They cleared the bar out. They completely destroyed it." Barren walls at Tommy Nevin's Pub in Evanston after employees say Northwestern students ransacked it. (Dustin Osakada) Nevin's staff, including one overwhelmed bouncer, attempted to chase down students one by one, but every time they returned after recovering an item from an exiting thief, more items would be taken.



"It wasn't a great night," said Bar Manager Brian Davenport, who's worked at Nevin's since 2011. "It was chaos." He said staff managed to catch the majority of the looters in the act, and eventually decided to lock the doors around 12:40 a.m. and start checking people on the way out.

"We basically stopped serving and all got on the door and tried to salvage what we could," he said. "We ended up closing early just to do damage control."



Bartender Osakada estimated there were about 100 students left in the bar at that time and roughly half of them – 40 to 50 of the students remaining in the bar – were caught on the way out trying to steal things. "[They were] hiding things under their coat, hiding things in their pants. stealing old trophies that leagues that we supported won, pictures of the teams. They took literally everything," he said.