An armed carjacking inside a River North parking garage Wednesday night bears strong similarities to another hijacking reported in a residential building’s parking garage Thursday evening in the Fulton River District. Police have not publicly linked the two crimes, but the details are strikingly similar.
Around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, a 35-year-old woman had just parked her car in a garage on the 100 block of West Hubbard when two offenders emerged and demanded her keys at gunpoint, CPD spokesperson Kellie Bartoli said.
Managers from a nearby apartment complex told their residents via email Friday morning that the carjackers hid between parked cars before the hijacking. A report said the offenders pointed a gun at the woman’s head.
The victim complied and the hijackers — one man and one woman — reportedly drove away with her white Audi A5.
A similar crime was committed by a man and a woman Thursday evening in the Fulton Market District, according to a CPD report. Around 6:30 p.m., the offenders approached a man outside the high-rise apartment building’s garage and took his 2011 BMW sedan at gunpoint on the 300 block of North Halsted, police said.
The Chicago Police Department claimed in a press release on Thursday that carjackings “continued” to decline in June. That statement is false. In fact, carjacking reports have increased every month since March, with 122 cases reported in June, according to city records.
Among other recent hijackings:
- A man was carjacked at gunpoint as he smoked a cigarette inside Loop parking garage early Sunday. Police said the hijacking is part of a two-hour crime spree that left at least five other people robbed and a man shot across downtown and Streeterville.
- On Tuesday, a 39-year-old woman was inside her red Ford Focus on the 400 block of North Morgan in the West Loop when the three men walked up to the car, and two of them displayed handguns around 3:35 p.m. She complied with their orders to surrender the car, and they drove away westbound on Carroll street with her vehicle, according to police. The men reportedly pushed the woman, but she was not injured.
- A series of hijackings in Bucktown, West Town, and Logan Square is part of a pattern in that area, police said in a community alert this week.
- Also this week, detectives released surveillance video of two offenders who shot and critically wounded a man during a carjacking attempt near the Magnificient Mile on June 17.
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