CHICAGO — Two men, including a 13-time convicted felon, robbed a North Side cellular store last week, prosecutors said. And they may have gotten away with it if they hadn’t stopped to pick up a disguised GPS tracking device from the store’s counter.
A store worker was talking on the phone with her mother when Romerio Morgan, 36, and Terrell Lewis, 32, walked into Metro by T-Mobile, 3409 West Belmont, around 3 p.m. Thursday, officials said.
The men took her phone, hung it up, and ordered the woman to take them to the store’s safe, prosecutors said.
Morgan allegedly grabbed cash and 57 phones from the safe and put them into a pink bag Lewis was holding. After grabbing another phone, which turned out to be a secret GPS tracker, the men headed out the back door, prosecutors said.
Chicago police tracked the GPS device and found Morgan and Lewis inside a minivan in the 2900 block of East 92nd Street. Cops realized the men were wearing the same clothing as the robbers, and a similar minivan was seen leaving the store after the holdup, according to prosecutors.
Officers recovered the stolen phones, cash, GPS tracker, and a pink bag from the minivan, prosecutors said.
Morgan has been convicted of 13 felonies, mostly thefts, burglaries, and retail thefts.
Lewis has been convicted of burglary four times and was paroled on January 12 for Class X armed habitual criminal, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records.
Representing Morgan during his bail hearing, Assistant Public Defender Jaclyn Diaz said he lives with his mother in Des Moines, where he works for an event company. He’s engaged and expecting his second child.
Lewis hired a private defense attorney who said he works full-time for a metals company in Aurora.
Judge William Fahy ordered each man to pay a $10,000 bail deposit to be released on electronic monitoring.