Two men have been charged in connection with a string of violent spa robberies on a single night in July that stretched from Bucktown to the Evanston border.
Juan Hidalgo, 25, is charged with two counts of armed robbery in connection with the first robbery, at a Bucktown spa on July 17. Police and court records also tie Gary May Jr., 26, to that robbery, though he has not been formally charged in it. May is charged in connection with the two robberies that followed, at a spa on North Milwaukee Avenue and another on Howard Street in Evanston.
The first robbery happened around 10:50 p.m. at North Beauty Hair and Foot Spa, 1710 West North Avenue, in Bucktown, where a 48-year-old woman was cleaning the business while her 37-year-old friend waited so they could go to dinner.
Prosecutors said Hidalgo walked up to the business and pressed the buzzer, which the women initially ignored. But when the cleaner eventually opened the door, Hidalgo immediately began punching her in the face and body, prosecutors said. Three other men then rushed inside.
The robbers took the cleaner, who was bleeding from her face, to a rear hallway, where they held both women against a wall before forcing them into a bathroom, prosecutors said. Hidalgo allegedly forced the cleaner to hand over her cellphone and about $1,200 in cash, and the men took the other woman’s phone as well. Surveillance cameras captured the robbery both inside and outside the business.
Five days after the stop, the officer saw a CPD bulletin seeking to identify the spa robbers and recognized Hidalgo in the surveillance images. Detectives then placed him in a photo lineup, and both victims picked him out, according to a detention filing.
But there were two other spa robberies that night, with May allegedly taking part in both. Shortly after the Bucktown holdup, two women were cleaning the Refresh Spa, 3413 North Milwaukee Avenue, when someone knocked on the door. One woman answered, and four men rushed inside, with one putting her in a chokehold while the others restrained the second woman, according to a detention order by Judge Rivanda Doss Beal.
All of the robbers wore masks except May, the filing said. One of the women, 22, escaped into another room and locked herself inside. When she came out, she allegedly saw May tampering with the security camera system while another robber reached into her bag. She confronted the men, and May allegedly punched her in the chest before the robbers fled with more than $1,000 in cash and the parts of the camera system.
The third robbery happened shortly after 1 a.m. at Relax Spa, 327 Howard Street. Evanston police said a man entered the business and received massage services before letting two accomplices in through the locked front door. The group, which allegedly included May, then searched the business for money and valuables.
At one point, one of the men grabbed an employee by the throat, forced her into a bathroom and used her Face ID to unlock her iPhone and access her banking application, police said. The robbers fled with about $1,500 in business cash, the employee’s phone, two credit cards and about $600 belonging to another employee.
May is charged with two counts of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated armed kidnapping and two counts of aggravated unlawful restraint in connection with the Evanston robbery. He also faces charges in connection with the Refresh Spa robbery on North Milwaukee Avenue.
Police continue to look for additional suspects.
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