Chicago — Nearly 40 people have been robbed since Friday by armed holdup crews prowling the city’s near west and north sides. Five victims were targeted Sunday evening in the West Loop and West Town.
Chicago police have issued community alerts about some of the crimes, which a source said likely involve at least two robbery crews. Still, the holdups continue, and some of the robberies are becoming more violent. There have been no arrests announced.
Sunday’s spree lasted just over an hour, beginning around 9 p.m. in the 1400 block of West Randolph. Two men jumped out of a black car and mugged a man while brandishing guns with green lasers attached, according to a CPD report.
Three more robberies are likely to have been carried out by the same crew, which used laser-equipped guns and a dark-colored sedan with a broken rear passenger window covered by a garbage bag:
- Around 9:30 p.m., a 26-year-old woman was confronted by a man who stepped out of a dark-colored sedan and demanded her money at gunpoint in the 1500 block of West Blackhawk. The woman did not have anything on her and the offender returned to the car empty-handed, a CPD spokesperson said.
- A man and his girlfriend were robbed of a Canada Goose jacket and a purse near Halsted and Monroe around 10 p.m.
- Two men pistol-whipped and robbed a man in the 1900 block of West Hubbard around 10:10 p.m.
Chicago cops who responded to the scenes described the robbers as two Black males in their late teens or early 20s wearing hoodies and face masks. A third person drove their getaway car.
Between Saturday evening and early Sunday, twelve robberies were reported in two separate waves in West Town, Lincoln Square, and North Center. Among those robbed was a 28-year-old woman who was walking home from a laundromat with her 9-year-old daughter.
Chicago police intervened in one of the Lincoln Square robberies, but the offenders sped away.
On Friday evening, seven women were robbed, and another was carjacked during a crime spree in Wicker Park, Bucktown, and West Town. At least fourteen people were robbed during a two-hour crime wave that stretched from the Lower West Side to Irving Park on Friday morning.
On November 25, at least nine robberies were reported during daylight robbery sprees in West Town and West Ridge. Four days earlier, three similar robberies were reported in Humboldt Park, Wicker Park, and Logan Square.
On November 19, a string of robberies and hijackings were reported from West Ridge to the Loop. And on Thursday, November 17, a group of six to eight male and female offenders traveled in two cars to carry out a series of robberies and carjackings that stretched across the north and northwest sides.
Police have issued community alerts about robberies in the affected areas, but no arrests have been announced.