CHICAGO — Prosecutors have charged a man with robbing four Subway sandwich stores in downtown Chicago and a suburb at gunpoint.
Judge Charles Beach held Nicholas Wardford, 31, without bail on Tuesday afternoon.
On July 15, he grabbed a drink from a refrigerator at the 1232 South Canal location and went to the register. Prosecutors say he pulled out a gun, pistol-whipped the cashier, and took money from the register.
On July 18, he selected a drink at the 604 South Wabash location and then robbed the cashier at gunpoint when they opened the register to give him change, according to a Chicago police report.
He is also charged with robbing the Canal Street location on June 25.
Wardford has been in and out of court since July 21, when he was picked up and quickly released on a year-old misdemeanor domestic battery warrant, court records show.
Two days later, Chicago police released surveillance images of a man they said was responsible for robbing seven Subways from the South Loop to Logan Square, sometimes at gunpoint.
And on July 29, prosecutors say, Wardfor robbed a Subway restaurant at 8345 West North Avenue in Melrose Park. Cops in Forest Park arrested him later that day after he was seen with a firearm at a 7-Eleven store, court records show.
Prosecutors charged him with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and he went home the next day after posting a $400 bail deposit.
Cops arrested him again on August 3 to face charges in the Melrose Park robbery. He has been in jail ever since.