Charges are pending after a hit-and-run driver fled the scene of a crash on Lake Shore Drive, ditched his car in Streeterville, and then told police that his vehicle had been carjacked, according to police and witnesses. The auto accident late on Thanksgiving night was captured on dashcam video by a passing Lyft driver.
Retired Chicago Police Officer Keith Lutz’s dashcam was rolling with his Lyft passengers in the back seat around 11:45 p.m. Slow-motion playback shows a driver heading south on LSD ignores a red light, then swerves and slides sideways, apparently to avoid a white SUV that is making a turn. The sideways-sliding car then crashes into another southbound vehicle as the autos speed out of camera range. The car that slid out of control then fled the scene, according to police.
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| Locations where (1) the crash occurred ; (2) police were waved down by “carjacking victims”; (3) crashed car was found. |
A few minutes later, two men and woman flagged down police near Superior and Fairbanks in Streeterville. The man told police that he had just been carjacked of his 1996 Honda Accord by two men who forced him and the woman from the car at gunpoint.
Lutz gave a statement about the crash to police officers and continued on his way — only to discover the heavily-damaged Honda Accord at Huron and McClurg, about a block from where the “carjacking” was being reported.
Investigators soon determined that the carjacking report was bogus — an attempt to cover-up responsibility for the crash that had taken place on Lake Shore Drive, according to a police source.
The three who reported the carjacking to police were taken into custody. Charges were pending.
“They’re lucky nobody was killed,” said Lutz, who spent years in CPD’s traffic unit. “The cars had enough damage to have a fatal [injury].”
CWBChicago will post an update when charges are finalized.
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