A West Side man robbed five women aboard CTA trains over the past month in separate crimes that stretched from Jefferson Park to the Loop to Uptown, according to prosecutors.
Jajuan Vaughan, 29, was charged with three felony counts of robbery and two felony counts of theft after police finally caught up with him last week. All of the crimes took place during afternoon hours, according to CPD records.
Around 4:30 p.m. last Thursday, police responded to a robbery call at the Chicago Brown Line station, 300 West Chicago. A 24-year-old woman told cops that a man reached over her shoulder and tried to grab her phone as she sat on the train. She wrestled with the man, but he gained control of her iPhone and ran from the station.
Police arrested Vaughan about a block away after the victim identified him as the robber, prosecutors said. Vaughan was carrying the woman’s phone, police said, and officers returned the property to her.
Prosecutors said Vaughan later identified himself in CTA surveillance images of four other robberies and thefts on CTA trains:Â
- at the Jefferson Park Blue Line station around 4:30 p.m. on July 30
- at the Lawrence Red Line station at 3:50 p.m. on August 18
- at an unnamed Loop elevated station at 3:35 p.m. on August 19
- at the Chicago Red Line station on August 26 (Exact time unavailable)
Judge Arthur Willis set bail at $100,000. Vaughan is required to go onto electronic monitoring if he can post the mandatory $10,000 deposit bond, Willis said.
