A woman was carjacked by a man who confronted her with a gun as she walked out of a bank in the West Loop early Wednesday, police said. The hijacking comes just days after the city recorded its fifth- and 12th-worst days for carjackings in at least 21 years.
The 35-year-old woman double-parked as she quickly ran into Chase Bank, 739 West Madison, and the man was waiting for her when she came back out around 2:40 a.m.
He displayed a gun and ordered her to surrender her keys and phone, a report said. According to police, she refused, and he grabbed the keys from her hand, then drove onto the expressway with her red 2017 Hyundai Sonata. The woman was not injured.
She described the carjacker as a slender Black male in his mid- to late-20s. Police were trying to determine if he arrived in a black sedan that was driven by an accomplice.
There have been 24 carjackings reported in the West Loop so far this year, up from 17 at this point last year.
Through September 21, there were 127 carjackings this month. That’s up 55% from 82 reported during the same period last year. According to the city records, there were 14 carjackings reported on September 19 with another 12 reported the next day. Those are now the fifth- and 12th-worst days for carjackings in Chicago since January 1, 2001, the first date for which records are available.
For the year, Chicago saw 1,197 carjackings through September 21, up 38% from the 866 seen at the same point in 2020. On Monday, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown told a business luncheon that carjackings are down.
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