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| Vargas is charged with robbing a cabbie near the Sedgwick Brown Line station. | CPD; Wikimedia |
Say hello (again) to Daniel Vargas. He sure has grown up since being featured on CWBChicago last year for pinching a woman’s butt and having a fake Green Card and bogus Social Security card in Lakeview.
Sunday afternoon, Vargas was riding in a cab through Old Town when he asked to be dropped off in the 1500 block of North Sedgwick, near the Sedgwick Brown Line station, around 2:45 p.m.
But when the cabbie asked to be paid, Vargas allegedly pulled out a knife and pushed it into the driver’s back while demanding money. The 36-year-old driver gave Vargas $92 and pointed out that the incident was being recorded on a camera.
Vargas proceeded to pull the video camera out of the car and run away, police said. But he didn’t get too far. Two Good Samaritans who saw the whole thing go down captured Vargas and held him for cops.
After being treated for a cut hand (Knives are sharp!), Vargas was charged with Class X felony armed robbery and ordered held without bail yesterday.
Vargas, who lives in the West Lawn neighborhood, is currently about half-way through a two-year probation sentence that he received for shoplifting at the Best Buy on Michigan Avenue in November 2016.
CWBChicago readers may remember his earliest criminal antics: Last September, Vargas got a lot more than he bargained for when he grabbed a woman’s butt in the 1100 block of West Belmont.
First, the woman called the cops. And, then, she just happened to see Vargas across the street while she was talking to the officers. They arrested him.
Things took a felonious turn for Vargas at the police station. While processing him for battering the woman, cops realized his permanent resident card and Social Security card were fakes.
Police said Vargas admitted to buying the documents “on 26th Street” for $80 in 2014 so he could seek employment.
Vargas pleaded guilty to felony possession of a fictitious or altered ID and received two-years probation for that case, too.
All Growed Up!
When it comes to robbery, Kateria Thomas seems to be a fantastic teacher.
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| Thomas | Cook County Sheriff |
Police say the 19-year-old Washington Park woman was walking with a 15-year-old girl in the 700 block of North State around 2:45 a.m. on October 22.
Thomas allegedly approached a 43-year-old woman, told the victim to hand over her purse, and then punched her in the face.
Wasting no time, the 15-year-old jumped in and took the victim’s phone and ran away with Thomas, police said.
One thing that neither Thomas nor the teen is good at is getting away. Both were arrested at the Chicago Red Line station minutes later.
Prosecutors charged Thomas and the juvenile with one count of robbery each.
Thomas is being held without bail due to a prior felony that is awaiting trial. No further information was available about the juvenile.
