Chicago — A newly acquired video shows a group of men armed with a rifle as they rob a man outside a Bridgeport convenience store.
“I was going to get some snacks!” the victim told CWB Chicago after he provided the video on Saturday.
The disturbing footage was recorded at the Marathon gas station, 659 West 31st Street, around 2:52 a.m. on January 5. It appears to capture a group of armed offenders that Chicago police have issued two public warnings about — men who travel in more than one car to rob and carjack people while displaying firearms and pistols.
In the video, a man wearing a hoodie steps out of a parked car and begins to enter the victim’s car while it’s unattended in the parking lot. But the offender stops, retreats to the seat he came out of, and then steps back out with a rifle in his hand as the victim arrives.
An SUV carrying accomplices arrives, and the crew goes to work, stripping the victim of his coat, taking away his phone, and clearing valuables out of his car.
Chicago police have not publicly linked the robbery to the armed crew in community alerts. But several similar hold-ups and carjackings were reported in the area that night, including four that police have listed in public warnings: in the 3200 block of South Harding, the 3500 block of South Ashland, the 2300 block of West Cermak, and the 3400 block of South California.
According to the police, the group has struck many times since that night, targeting people at ATMs, gas stations, and on the street for robberies, carjackings, and auto thefts.
So far, though, no arrests have been made.