A 17-year-old boy is charged with carjacking a 69-year-old cancer patient outside a West Town bakery in November, according to a CPD media statement. NBC5 aired footage of the hijacking and spoke with the victim the day after the crime.
Separately, CWBChicago has learned a 16-year-old charged with hitting and carjacking a woman on the Northwest Side this week was also arrested and charged with two carjackings in December.
Charges for hijacking cancer patient
CPD announced that the 17-year-old accused of hijacking the woman in West Town last year was arrested Tuesday morning on the 1100 block of South Hamilton, which happens to be the block where Cook County’s juvenile court and detention center is located. That suggests he has at least one other active case.
He is charged with felony vehicular hijacking of the woman on the 700 block of North Leavitt as she left Ann’s Bakery and Deli around 10:15 a.m. on November 8.
“He was just standing there, then, before I knew it, he was in the back of me,” Justine Kotlarz told the station. “I was thinking ‘oh God,’ you know.”
She was battling stage four breast cancer at the time of the hijacking, NBC5 reported.
Teen carjacker strikes again
Two hijackers struck a 33-year-old woman in the face with a weapon and dragged her from her Subaru Crosstrek on the 5000 block of West Lawrence around 6:20 Monday morning, according to a CPD report.
Hours later, officers arrested two boys, ages 16 and 17, in connection with the crime on the 9400 block of South Wentworth, according to a police media statement. Prosecutors charged them with aggravated vehicular hijacking.
But a law enforcement source told CWBChicago that it’s not the 16-year-old’s first dance with carjacking charges. In fact, he was charged with two counts of vehicular hijacking less than a week before Christmas, the source said. Now he is adding a third felony to his collection.
Improvement?
Chicago police recorded 63 carjackings through the first 11 days of January, down from 72 during the same period last year. The city saw 23 cases in the first 11 days of 2020 and 22 during the period in 2019, according to CPD data.
