Chicago police hope they’re getting close to shutting down an armed robbery and carjacking crew that has been targeting victims in a series of sprees this month. The optimism comes after cops arrested a 17-year-old who was carrying proceeds from a Lincoln Park robbery when he bailed out of an SUV that was carjacked in the West Loop yesterday afternoon.
An armed robbery crew using a car that’s been linked to a series of hijackings took a man’s Chevy Traverse at gunpoint on the 1300 block of West Ohio around 2:38 p.m. Monday, CWBChicago reported. Around 3:30 p.m., cops spotted the car in Lawndale and the 17-year-old bailed out, a source said. Cops arrested him, but the rest of the crew escaped in the stolen SUV.
When officers searched the teen, they discovered that he was carrying property taken when a group of armed men robbed two people on the 1500 block of West Montana around 12:01 a.m. Monday, according to police.
He is charged with vehicular hijacking and theft of lost or mislaid property. No additional information is available about the boy because he is a juvenile.
However, police issued a community alert Monday afternoon to warn about a series of carjackings and robberies in Lakeview, Lincoln Park, and Logan Square that is being carried out by armed men who drive a car bearing license plate CU21274.
In one alert, police said the plate was seen on the getaway car after two robberies reported around 5:30 a.m. Sunday on the 2100 block of North Ashland and the 1800 block of West Webster.
Five hours after issuing that alert, police issued another community alert in which those two robberies were included in an even larger pattern of hold-ups and carjackings that occurred in Lakeview and Lincoln Park on Sunday and Monday. You can read more about those cases here.
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