“Give me an A!”: Distinctive face tats lead cops to Mag Mile looter, prosecutors say

Antwoine Pittman | CPD

A man with several distinctive tattoos is, um, facing charges after cops recognized his ink work while reviewing video of an August 10 looting on the Magnificent Mile.

Antwoine Pittman, 22, was already in Cook County jail when police re-arrested him Thursday on the looting case. He’s been locked up since prosecutors charged him in September with robbery and battering a CTA employee at the 63rd Street Red Line station.

Cops who arrested Pittman in September later recognized him in a bulletin from CPD’s looting task force that asked for officers’ help in identifying people who looted the Ulta Beauty store at 430 North Michigan on August 10.

Videos from the store showed dozens of people entering and leaving the store with merchandise during a night of widespread plundering in the downtown area.

But one of the videos clearly shows a man with much of the alphabet tattooed on his face, prosecutors said during a bond court hearing Saturday. Those tattoos are so memorable, the cops who arrested Pittman for robbery in September remembered him weeks later.

In addition to having the word “active” tattooed above his left eye (with an upside-down “A”), Pittman also has the letter “B” tattooed between his eyes, the word “spike” above his right eye, and a broken heart tattoo on his cheek, prosecutors said. Many of those tattoos were visible in the Ulta Beauty video, according to the state.

The upside-down “A” was the mark that played a key role in the identification of Pittman, they said.

Prosecutors charged Pittman yesterday with felony burglary. Judge David Navarro set bail in the case at $5,000. Pittman is being held without bail for the robbery.

Earlier this week, prosecutors filed looting charges against a man who was tracked down after cops allegedly matched pings from his GPS-equipped home monitoring bracelet to a series of August 10 looting locations.

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CWBChicago was created in 2013 by five residents of Wrigleyville and Boystown who had grown disheartened with inaccurate information that was being provided at local Community Policing (CAPS) meetings. Our coverage area has expanded since then to cover Lincoln Park, River North, The Loop, Uptown, and other North Side Areas. But our mission remains unchanged: To provide original public safety reporting with better context and greater detail than mainstream media outlets. Our editorial email address is news@cwbchicago.com