Two men carjacked a 64-year-old woman in River West on Thursday morning and a nearby surveillance video captured it all.
A CPD spokesperson confirmed that two hijackers removed a woman from her car as she was parking on the 800 block of West Superior around 10:40 a.m.
That location and time aligns with the video, which shows the hijacking taking place at 824 West Superior. No arrests have been made.
The video appears to show that the woman’s black Mercedes Benz was in reverse as the offenders forced her from the car. It rolls backwards, nearly knocking her and a carjacker over before he jumps into the driver’s seat and applies the brake. Watch:
Joes Domingo, who posted the video to Facebook, warned his neighbors, “be careful friends this was premeditated!”
West Town, which includes neighborhoods like River West, Wicker Park and Ukrainian Village, was the second-worst of the city’s 77 community areas for hijackings last year.
Things are a little better this year. The area had 25 hijackings through April 15, down from 33 during the same period in 2021. By comparison, there were 14 in 2020 and seven in 2019.
Citywide, 497 hijackings were reported through April 15 this year, up about 5% from last year’s record. The city had 231 hijackings as of mid-April 2020 and 136 during the period in 2019. Carjackings are also up 19% this month across Chicago compared to last April, with 62 cases through April 15th. That compares to 33 in 2020 and 26 in 2019.