CHICAGO —Five people were robbed in Lincoln Park on Thursday night. Similar sprees have popped up in the neighborhood several times since late last month.
The robberies began around 11:30 p.m. in the 2200 block of North Cleveland.
Chicago police said a 76-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman were standing outside when two robbers walked up and said they had a gun. They demanded the victims’ property but ran away after the man swung his briefcase at them, a CPD spokesperson said.
About five minutes later, a man and woman were robbed in the 400 block of West Grant.
They told police they were walking when two male robbers confronted them and implied they had a firearm, police said. The victims handed over their property to the offenders, who ran eastbound.
A Chicago police spokesperson confirmed that a third robbery was reported in the area around the same time, but the case report was not finalized as of Friday morning.
A witness to one of the robberies described the robbers as two Black males who stood about 5’10” tall. They wore hoodies with masks or bandanas, and one of them had long hair.
Chicago police issued a community alert about robberies in Lincoln Park last week.
Three people were robbed in the neighborhood on Monday afternoon, June 12:
- A 19-year-old DePaul student was walking in the 2200 block of North Lincoln when a 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.
- 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.
In other recent cases:
- 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.