Police may have caught a break as they try to track down the burglary crew that has been stealing ATMs, cash registers, and inventory from businesses stretching from Rogers Park to Lincoln Park to Wicker Park over the past few weeks.
Unfortunately, the break came after a man was shot during a carjacking attempt Wednesday morning.
Around 6:15 a.m., an armed carjacker tried to take a man’s car at the Amoco station, 2338 North Sacramento. The victim resisted, and the offender fired two shots, striking the man in his left hand, Chicago police said. Police found two shell casings at the scene.
The carjacker jumped into an orange Honda Scion that was waiting nearby and fled. A few minutes later, he crashed into another car on the corner of California and Potomac and ran from the scene. The driver of the car he crashed into flagged down police, and cops caught the 17-year-old nearby. They also recovered a handgun, according to a CPD report.
Police said the Scion had been carjacked around 5:45 a.m. in the Austin neighborhood. A CPD source said another vehicle used in that carjacking is linked to a series of business burglaries in Logan Square, Bucktown, and Irving Park over the past two days.
And those burglaries are also linked to a weeks-long pattern of overnight business break-ins that have victimized businesses across the North and West Sides. All of the crimes are connected to the same crew, according to the police source.
The victim who was shot during the carjacking attempt was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition.
Detectives continue to investigate all of the crimes.