Update August 21, 4:45 p.m. — The missing dogs have been found safe, according to a friend of the victim.
A carjacking victim’s dogs are missing after they were taken during a series of hijackings and robberies that unfolded Saturday morning, Chicago police said. While the crimes were committed in Old Town, Lincoln Park, and West Town by a group of four men who traveled in two cars, police have not yet publicly linked the crimes to each other.
Around 4:50 a.m., the spree began in the 1800 block of North Lincoln, just outside the Hotel Lincoln. According to police, a 53-year-old rideshare driver was waiting for a passenger when he was blocked in by a black Tesla and a white Jeep.
Four men wearing ski masks got out of the cars with handguns and opened all of the doors of the man’s car. A police spokesperson said one of the men punched the victim in the back of the head and ordered him to turn over his property. He complied, and the group fled with his wallet and phone.
About ten minutes later, a 25-year-old woman was carjacked in the 500 block of North May in West Town. She was inside her Hyundai SUV with her two dogs when two vehicles, one white and the other black, arrived, and four men got out of the cars with handguns, the CPD spokesperson said.
One of the men pistol-whipped her as they robbed her of her property. Then, they drove away in her car with the two dogs, police said.
Police found the woman’s car near the 1200 block of South Keeler Avenue a short time later, but the dogs were not with it, according to the CPD spokesperson. There was no additional information available about the dogs’ breeds or appearance.
Then, a little before 6 a.m., three men hijacked a woman’s car in the 1500 block of North Kingsbury Street. The victim told police that three men with guns got out of two vehicles, a white SUV and a dark compact, and took her black 2019 Honda. They were last seen heading west on North Avenue.
In each instance, the robbers were described as Black males wearing ski masks.
No arrests have been made.