A group of juveniles rollicked through Edgewater and Uptown on Thursday morning, robbing victims and apparently trying to steal a man’s car before leaving the area on a Red Line train. Cops caught up with the group and recovered property belonging to at least four victims at the Belmont CTA station in Lakeview, but they had to let them all go, at least for now.
The burst of mayhem began shortly before 6 a.m. when five juveniles jumped in a man’s car and tried to steal it on the 5700 block of North Broadway. They failed and walked east on Thorndale, according to a CPD report.
A few minutes later, a man called 911 to report that a group of teenagers tried to rob him near Winthrop and Hollywood. He ran away and they didn’t get anything.
The next two victims weren’t so lucky.
About 6:30 a.m., a group of teenagers robbed a man of his bag on the 5000 block of North Sheridan as he walked to work. According to a police report, they ran away and eventually dropped the man’s bag — but not before taking a $20 bill from inside.
Around the same time in the 4900 block of North Winthrop, four young offenders punched a 60-year-old man, which knocked him to the ground, according to Officer Michelle Tannehill. They took his wallet and ran. The group then made their way to the Argyle Red Line station, where they jumped the turnstile and boarded a southbound train.
Officers intercepted the train at Belmont and rounded up a group of teens who ran from the station shortly after 7 a.m. Cops also recovered four driver’s licenses and several credit cards belonging to different people from the train car the juveniles were in — including an ID that belongs to the 60-year-old man who was robbed on Winthrop, a CPD report said. It’s not clear where the other IDs and cards came from.
Police brought the Winthrop victim to the Belmont station to see if he could identify the teens as the people who attacked him, but he couldn’t pick any of them out. Officers then drove the man to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for an evaluation.
The victim who was robbed of his bag had already arrived at work and couldn’t make the trip to Lakeview to potentially identify the teens. Officers collected the juveniles’ information and released them.
Area Three detectives are investigating.
