Chicago police have issued another warning about a spike in robberies around Lincoln Park. And CWBChicago has learned that a third person, a DePaul University student, was robbed near the school’s campus on Monday afternoon.
The student, a 19-year-old man, was walking in the 2200 block of North Lincoln when the robber came up behind him around 4:30 p.m., according to CPD.
He told police that the robber implied that he had a gun and demanded his property, which the victim turned over. The man filed a police report on Tuesday afternoon.
Two women were also robbed in the area around the same time on Monday. Chicago police linked those robberies in a community alert Tuesday evening.
The robberies were similar to what the DePaul student described, but the women did not report seeing firearms. Police said the offender approached both victims from behind and struck them in the head, causing them to become disoriented.
He took their property and fled in a white sedan.
A 26-year-old woman told police she was robbed while walking in the 600 block of West Armitage around 4:23 p.m., and a 30-year-old woman was targeted in the 2200 block of North Geneva Terrace around 4:32 p.m., according to police.
The community alert described the suspect as a Black male wearing a black sweatshirt with black pants.
Tips can be shared with Area Three detectives at 312-744-8263 regarding crime pattern P23-3-041.
Earlier robberies
A string of robberies popped up in the DePaul area a couple of weeks ago, but they occurred at night. They were also different in that multiple robbers confronted victims and implied that they had firearms:
- A little before 11 p.m. on May 28, a woman called 911 to report that two men tried to rob her and a friend as they sat on a bench in Oz Park. The woman who called for help bolted from the park, leaving her friend behind.
- About 20 minutes later, a 26-year-old woman was knocked to the ground and robbed in the 2200 block of North Sheffield, according to CPD. The offender escaped in a light-colored vehicle.
- Two DePaul students, ages 19 and 20, were robbed at gunpoint in the 1300 block of West Fullerton around 4:15 a.m. on May 29. The men were walking when two offenders exited a black car to rob them. After the holdup, the victims went to University Hall, a DePaul residence hall, and a security officer called 911, identifying them as students.
- A 37-year-old woman was carjacked by two men who implied they had weapons at 11:39 p.m. on May 29, police said. She was getting into her car in the 2300 block of North Halsted, directly in front of DePaul’s School of Music building, when they took her black Volkswagen Jetta.
- On June 1, four young women were robbed while walking together in Lincoln Park shortly after midnight in the 700 block of West Webster, Chicago police said. A robber punched one woman in the face. One of them tried to run away, but she fell to the ground, and a robber grabbed her buttocks, then proceeded with the robbery, police said.
Three women were robbed in Lincoln Park and Old Town on Tuesday morning. Police arrested a juvenile boy in connection with those crimes.
The holdups began around 8:25 a.m. when a gunman confronted a woman as she walked her dog in the 300 block of West Evergreen. He got away with the victim’s fanny pack, phone, and keys.
About an hour later, another woman reported a robbery in the 2000 block of North Dayton. A police spokesperson said the woman told officers that a gunman in his late teens or early 20s displayed a handgun and demanded her property. She gave him her bag, and he fled the scene.
Police responded to another robbery around 9:43 a.m. in the 1400 block of North North Park. A woman reported that a 15-year-old boy pointed a gun at her and demanded her property inside a parking garage, a CPD spokesperson said. She refused to comply, and the offender ran away when she leaned on her car horn.
Patrol officers, guided by a CPD surveillance camera operator, arrested the boy in the 300 block of West Goethe a short time later. Officers said they recovered a gun during the arrest.