ONE HOUR, FOUR ROBBED: ATM Users Targeted

Two men were robbed at ATMs near Belmont and Sheffield overnight, including one at this Bank of America. Image:Google

19th district officers responded to four robberies in under half an hour overnight, with two of the victims being targeted at ATMs around Belmont and Sheffield.

In the first incident, a black male offender wearing a baseball cap, white t-shirt. and white hoodie accompanied by a black female wearing yellow pants stole a mans phone near Clark and Buckingham. Officers then began a wild goose chase,  trying to track down the moving phone via GPS. First, they held and searched all trains at the Belmont Red Line. The suspects were not found. Then, they ordered the CTA to stop all trains at the Wilson Red Line stop. Again, the suspects were not found.

Officers believe one man was involved in all three attacks of the subsequent attacks:

At 2:50 AM, two separate witnesses reported that two or three males, black, one wearing all black clothing, forced a man to withdraw money from an ATM at 3258 N. Sheffield Avenue, just north of Belmont. Officers were unable to locate the victim and no report was taken. CWB believes this incident was a bona fide robbery because multiple witnesses called it in and because a confirmed robbery occurred 26 minutes later at an ATM less than a block away. The case has been added to our list of reported robberies that will not appear in police statistics.

Five minutes later, a man was robbed of his phone just west of Halsted on Roscoe Street, behind Roscoe’s bar. The offender, a male, black, 5’6″ tall in his late teens or early 20’s with medium-length dreads and wearing a light blue hoodie was last seen running westbound on Buckingham toward Clark Street with the victim’s phone. The police department opted to classify this case as a larceny (theft), which is a lesser crime than robbery. Case #HW329853

Then, at 3:16 AM, a black man in his mid-20’s, 5’8″ tall with medium length dreads and wearing a blue and black polo shirt followed a man into the Bank of America ATM vestibule at Belmont and Sheffield, then forced the victim to withdraw money. The offender was last seen running south on Sheffield, then east on Fletcher toward Halsted. Officers gave the victim a ride to his Uptown home. Once again, the police opted to downgrade the crime’s classification to larceny from robbery. Case #HW329857