Chicago — Two parolees are in custody after Chicago police tracked a robbery victim’s stolen AirTag to locate them in a stolen getaway car, prosecutors said.
Giovanni Hernandez and Timothy Evangelio, both 24, were ordered held without bail on Friday afternoon by Judge Maryam Ahmad. The Illinois Department of Corrections is also moving to revoke both men’s parole status.
The robbery happened around 12:44 p.m. Wednesday in the 4500 block of South Mozart in Brighton Park as the victim was getting ready to go for a drive. Parts of the robbery were caught on camera.
As the woman neared her car, a stolen Jeep Cherokee pulled up next to her, and Hernandez got out of the passenger seat to confront her, prosecutors said. The woman turned around and allegedly saw him pointing a gun at her stomach.
Hernandez, on parole for shooting someone, grabbed the woman’s phone from her hoodie pocket and told her to “hand over your f*cking keys and your f*cking bag,” prosecutors said. The woman complied.
Still pointing the gun at the woman, Hernandez told the woman to “shut the f*ck up and walk away.” Again, she complied.
Unbeknownst to Hernandez, the woman’s f*cking keyring also held a f*cking AirTag that would soon lead to his arrest.
Chicago police initially tracked the woman’s stolen phone and found it abandoned on a street. So, they turned their attention to the AirTag that was attached to the woman’s key ring.
Officers quickly found the Jeep in traffic, but the driver sped away as police tried to pull it over. Cops terminated the pursuit because the driver was behaving recklessly, prosecutors said.
But CPD continued to monitor the AirTag, and cops were watching a few minutes later as the Jeep crashed into another vehicle, plowed through a fence, flipped over, and landed on the driver’s side, prosecutors said.
Chicago police arrested Hernandez as he crawled out of the front passenger window. They found Evangelio standing inside the Jeep with his head and chest sticking out of the car. The driver of the vehicle they struck remained hospitalized on Friday.
Prosecutors said Evangelio had a loaded handgun inside his jacket pocket, and another gun was found in the Jeep’s passenger area.
Hernandez is charged with armed robbery and criminal trespass to a vehicle.
Evangelio, on parole for aggravated robbery, is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon with two or more previous convictions, possessing a stolen motor vehicle, aggravated fleeing, and possessing a controlled substance.
Both men are scheduled to be in court again on January 27.