A suburban man accused of robbing a restaurant owner at gunpoint tried to remove his ankle monitor by walking into Home Depot and using a pair of — appropriately — bolt cutters from the shelves, prosecutors say, but he walked right into the arms of Cook County Sheriff’s Police in the parking lot as he left, according to prosecutors.
Tyrone Arnold, 28, is charged with escape from electronic monitoring and criminal damage to government property for almost severing the county’s GPS tracker from his ankle. Almost.
Arnold has been on electronic monitoring since being arrested in 2024 for an armed robbery case in which Arnold and another man allegedly targeted a suburban Mexican restaurant owner who had just left a bank near 115th and Halsted with $3,000 to pay a meat vendor.
As the victim parked near his restaurant, Arnold allegedly pulled up in a Ford Fusion, cut him off, and demanded the money as the man walked toward the restaurant. When the victim tried to fight back, Arnold struck him in the head several times, according to prosecutors. The victim dropped his phone, which Arnold allegedly grabbed before heading back to his car. As he retreated, a second man got out of the vehicle and pointed a gun at the victim, prosecutors allege, before the two drove off.
Blue Island police say they spotted the car on a FLOCK camera and tracked it to the area of 123rd and Halsted, where Arnold allegedly sold the stolen phone. Officers later found the car nearby, stopped it, and arrested Arnold along with the second man, who police say had the gun. A firearm was recovered in the grass near where Arnold was detained, according to the filing. Prosecutors say both men admitted to participating in the robbery, and that Arnold told police he struck the victim, took his phone, and sold it at a gas station.
At the time, prosecutors asked Judge Lisette Mojica to detain Arnold pending trial. She declined and released him on electronic monitoring instead.
Everything went swimmingly until Monday when, according to new court filings, someone accused Arnold of stealing something at the place where he has been staying on electronic monitoring. Afraid that he would be sent back to jail on those allegations, he headed to the bolt cutter department at Home Depot, 4555 South Western Avenue.
As he worked to cut through the ankle monitor strap, the device sent a “tamper alert” to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, according to a detention filing. Within minutes, the sheriff’s police were homing in on his ankle monitor and they arrived at Home Depot just in time to see Arnold walk out of the store, officials say. His ankle monitor was still attached, but the strap had been cut halfway through, the detention filing said.
Arnold then led the sheriff’s team back inside the store, walked them to the bolt cutter aisle, and pointed out the tool he used, prosecutors said.
Judge Rivanda Doss Beal ordered Arnold detained, both on the new escape charge and for violating the terms of his release in the earlier robbery case. She noted he’d been on electronic monitoring long enough to know he had other options besides trying to cut the thing off.
