Helmont, the crime-laden strip of turf from the 700 to 1200 blocks of Belmont Avenue, is really hitting its warm weather stride.
More than 25% of the robberies reported in Wrigleyville and Boystown this year have taken place on Helmont—including 3 this month.
In the latest mugging, a man called the 19th district station desk at 11:55PM Tuesday to report that his father had been robbed of a cell phone in the 700 block of Belmont. The victim told officers that a 6-foot-tall “person” wearing a blue and gray hoodie robbed him of his phone in front of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and fled eastbound on Belmont. (CPD case HY239910)
• On April 19, a man reported to police that an offender dragged him into an alley at the Belmont Red Line station and proceeded to beat and rob him. (Case HY227669)
Helmont has consistently been the most dangerous stretch of road in our neighborhood, racking up more robberies than any other street in 2012, 2013, and 2014.
Despite the consistent, undeniable pattern of violence, the Chicago Police Department has never made a concerted effort to reign in Helmont’s mayhem.
