CHICAGO — A Venezuelan migrant is charged with mugging a 50-year-old woman in the Loop this week. It’s his third arrest in a month and his sixth arrest in the past year.
“The randomness and brazenness is appalling and awful,” Judge Shauna Boliker said in a detention order keeping Yeison Becerra-Colmenares in jail pending trial.
The victim told police that a man confronted her as she got into her car in a parking lot the 500 block of South Wabash on Wednesday night. He reached into her car to get some of her belongings from the front seat, but she fought back, and a struggle ensued, prosecutors said.
As Becerra-Colmenares escaped with her Coach purse, the woman gave chase, according to prosecutors. But he allegedly reached into his pocket and pulled out an aerosol can that he used to strike the woman in her face and nose. He pushed her to the ground, injuring her knee and hand, then fled, officials claimed.
“This victim could have been any member of our community,” said Boliker.
Cops pinged the woman’s phone, which was inside the stolen purse, and tracked its signal to the first block of East Lake Street. When they got there, they saw Becerra-Colmenares, 26, standing outside a 7-Eleven with the woman’s Coach purse, according to the report.
The victim confirmed that Becerra-Colmenares was the man who robbed her, officials said. She also received a bank alert that someone tried to use her credit card to make a $485 purchase at the nearby 7-Eleven, but it failed.
He has two other cases pending, according to court records, and three other cases that have been dropped in the past year:
- On November 24 last year, he was charged with driving without a license and vehicle infractions in the 6300 block of South University. After he failed to appear in February and again in April, officials dropped the charges. They did, however, notify the Secretary of State to suspend the driver’s license, which he doesn’t have.
- According to a CPD report, store employees accused him of shoplifting $69 worth of turkey breast, ham, fried chicken, and tater tots, leading to his arrest at Jewel-Osco, 6014 South Cottage Grove, on December 5. He failed to appear in January, February, and June to October. The case is still pending.
- On May 25, he was arrested at Macy’s in the Loop after they accused him of stealing jewelry, a watch, a shirt, and a fragrance gift set worth $354. Prosecutors dropped the case when Macy’s failed to appear in court the next month.
- He has a pending case in which he’s accused of shoplifting $345 worth of merchandise from a Walmart in Bedford Park.
- On October 28, he got arrested for shoplifting at Macy’s again. Once again, the prosecutors dropped the case after the store failed to appear a week later.
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