Police are investigating three robberies reported in the Lincoln Park neighborhood since late Tuesday — a delivery driver and two businesses were targeted. The hold-ups do not appear to be connected.
First, a food delivery driver told police that two armed men tried to rob him as he dropped off an order in the 400 block of West Belden at 11:56 p.m. Tuesday, according to CPD spokesperson Sally Bown.
The victim, age 38, reported that two men approached him while displaying a handgun and demanded his valuables as he got out of his car to make a delivery. He told the men that he didn’t have anything of value, began yelling for help, and started running away. Both offenders also ran from the scene.
A witness saw the robbers run eastbound on Belden, Bown said. Another witness reported seeing them turn north on Clark Street. Police did not release descriptions of the robbers.
Bown said the victim fell and injured his foot while running from the men. An ambulance crew treated him at the scene.
Then, around 7 p.m. Wednesday, a man implied he had a handgun as he demanded money from an employee at Yoberri yogurt, 2224 North Clark. The victim could not get the cash register open, so the offender took $1 from a tip jar and fled, according to a CPD report.
According to the victim, the robber was a skinny black male in his 30’s who stands about six-feet tall. He wore a gray Nike-brand hat, a blue zip-up jacket, and slip-on shoes. The victim said the man ran west on Grant Place after the incident.
Less than an hour later, around 7:50 p.m., two men battered a 7-Eleven clerk as they stole boxes of cigarettes from behind the store’s counter at 2004 North Halsted, according to a CPD report. The clerk was not seriously injured. Both men fled south on Halsted with a significant number of cigarettes.
The victim described the robbers as two black males who wore masks and gray hoodies tied around their faces.
Area 3 detectives are investigating the robberies.
