After taking Thursday off to enjoy an intimate Thanksgiving gathering with members of their own households, Chicago’s brazen armed carjackers got right back to work Friday evening. This time, they targeted a driver in the Gold Coast.
A 30-year-old man told police that a carjacker produced a handgun and took his keys in the 1200 block of North Clark around 7:11 p.m., said Officer Hector Alfaro, a CPD spokesperson.
The offender then climbed into the man’s 2010 RAV4 and drove away. According to the victim, the carjacker is a Black male who wore a Cleveland Cavaliers jacket.
Area Three detectives are investigating.
Vehicular hijacking reports are up 125% compared to last year, according to CPD data. Armed carjackings have been reported on a near-daily basis lately:
A woman was battered by men who tried to carjack her in North Center on Wednesday evening. That incident took place just a couple of blocks from where robbers pushed a woman to the ground and stole her Jeep while she unloaded groceries on Tuesday evening.
Early Tuesday, a Bucktown man was shot by robbers who tried to hijack his wife’s Porsche as she arrived home with their daughter from Midway Airport.
The carjackers who shot the man pulled up to the scene in a red Audi that police believe they carjacked from a woman in Lakeview on Monday.
Also on Monday evening, an armed man hijacked a pick-up truck in Albany Park and went on an hour-long robbery spree across the North Side. A suspect was being questioned in the case Friday, according to a source.
Five juveniles were arrested Monday evening after they beat and tried to carjack a tourist at gunpoint outside a Loop hotel.
And at least five carjackings were reported Sunday across the North Side. A man who works in the Whole Foods Lincoln Park store, 1550 North Kingsbury, was shot as he took out garbage, apparently by offenders who tried to carjack another store employee nearby.
Four carjackings were reported last Saturday evening, including three that occurred in about 20 minutes around Wicker Park and Bucktown.
