Chicago — Four armed men robbed and carjacked a driver in Lakeview on Monday night, Chicago police said. The same group of offenders is suspected of trying to carjack another driver in Boystown a few minutes earlier.
A 30-year-old man was in the 800 block of West Barry when four carjackers displaying handguns approached him around 11:54 p.m., a Chicago police spokesperson said.
Two of the carjackers went through the victim’s pockets to get valuables, and the group then drove away with his black 2007 BMW 325i, which was parked nearby.
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According to an officer who responded to the scene, the crime appeared to be related to a failed carjacking that occurred about 30 minutes earlier in the 3200 block of North Broadway.
In that incident, a man reported that four or five men tried to steal his black BMW around 11:25 p.m. One of the offenders threatened him with a gun that had a red laser attached — a detail that the victim on Barry also reported to police, the officer said.
But the man targeted on Broadway did not file a police report.
The pace of carjacking reports began to fade in the second half of 2022 as the “Kia Boys” phenomenon hit the city, but cases are increasing in the new year.
Through January 16, the most recent data available, Chicago police took 99 carjacking reports this month. That’s up slightly from last year’s pace, below 2021’s record high, and well above earlier years.