A West Side man is charged with carjacking two drivers in Bucktown on January 18 while he was on “affordable bail” for a pending gun case. The man is also facing charges for allegedly driving another vehicle that was hijacked in February.
Back on Halloween, prosecutors charged Chauncey Jordan with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon after police said they found a loaded handgun next to his seat during a traffic stop. According to court records, he went home the next day after his mother posted a $300 deposit.
With that case still pending, Jordan brandished another handgun to carjack a 44-year-old Uber driver at the Shell service station, 1768 West Armitage, around 2:30 a.m. on January 18, according to police and prosecutors.
But Jordan couldn’t figure out how to drive the car because its emergency brake was locked, police said.
So, he got out of that car and took a Toyota Camry at gunpoint from a 45-year-old woman — also an Uber driver —who was nearby, prosecutors said.
Police did not connect Jordan to the January carjackings in Bucktown until March 18. According to police, prosecutors last week charged him with two counts of felony aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm in those cases.
Between the time of the Bucktown incidents and the filing of charges last week, Jordan was arrested in south suburban Lansing after cops allegedly saw him driving a hijacked SUV.
Lansing officers were running license plates of vehicles on Red Roof Inn parking lot on Valentine’s Day when the SUV came back stolen, prosecutors said during a February 15 bond court hearing.
Hotel surveillance video showed a man driving the SUV onto the lot and going into a specific room. Cops knocked on the room door and saw the driver — later identified as Jordan — lying on the bed, according to prosecutors.
Officers said they found the hijacked Jeep’s keys sitting on a counter in the room. The SUV was allegedly carjacked in Chicago the day before.
Prosecutors charged Jordan with possession of a stolen motor vehicle in that case. Judge Charles Beach set bail at $100,000 during the February hearing and Jordan has been in Cook County jail ever since, which made it easy for police to locate him after he was identified in the Bucktown hijackings.
Judge John Lyke ordered Jordan held without bail Tuesday.