Two men carjacked a driver at gunpoint on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park and abandoned another stolen car at the scene Sunday morning, according to a CPD report. It the latest case in what appears to be a fresh surge of vehicular hijackings in the city.
The offenders reportedly bumped into the back of the victim’s Mercedes sedan with a stolen car as he waited for the red light to change on southbound Lake Shore Drive at Monroe around 8:35 a.m.
When the man pulled over to exchange information with the offenders near Balbo, the offenders displayed a handgun and took control of his car, police said. The men left behind the car they used to ram the victim. That vehicle, a white Toyota, was stolen in the Loop on Saturday, according to a police report.
Taken in the carjacking on Sunday morning was a 2014 Mercedes E350 that bears Indiana plates that begin with “326,” the report said. It was last seen southbound on Lake Shore Drive.
While carjacking reports have declined from the record pace of over 200 cases seen in January, hijackings have continued to occur at a faster pace than last year. Now, the city appears to be in the midst of another carjacking surge. Among the most recent cases:
- Two armed carjackings were reported in about 10 minutes on Saturday evening — one downtown and the other in Old Town.
- A driver was carjacked at gunpoint on a parking lot near Columbus and Illinois in Streeterville on Friday morning. Police linked that case to a series of more than a dozen armed robberies that unfolded in the preceding nine hours.
- Three teens are charged with carjacking a woman in Rogers Park on Wednesday evening.
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