Police in Chicago, Illinois, are urging residents to be cautious after a slew of violent robberies concentrating on primarily drunk people within the metropolis’s River North neighborhood.
In accordance with FOX 32, at the very least 4 incidents have taken place between June 16 and July 6, with one to a few African American males beating and robbing folks.
The boys befriended individuals who gave the impression to be intoxicated earlier than stealing their property and beating them, police mentioned.
The robberies occurred throughout the early morning hours when bars and eating places have been closing.
One of many people robbed, Tori Ledzema, instructed FOX 32 she was forcibly pushed to the bottom by 4 people in ski masks whereas she was headed to Pilates at 5:30 a.m.
She mentioned the boys tried to realize entry to her cellphone.
Ledzema mentioned she had a gun aimed toward her head throughout the theft and suffered a sprained neck.
“He threw me to the bottom. Later discovered I sprained my neck from this affect. However the 4 of them pulled me again up, they usually held the gun to my head,” Ledzema mentioned. “There have been three weapons. They held one to me after which one in both route of site visitors. Not that there actually was site visitors, after which the motive force stayed within the automobile. However they held the gun to my head and requested me for my password, after which I later discovered that this group was on the lookout for folks’s Money App. Which is without doubt one of the different issues they requested me for.”
Police tracked down the automobile utilized by the suspects and received fingerprints. No arrests have been made.
Former FBI particular agent Jonathan Gilliam instructed Fox Information Digital in an interview that the suspects needed one factor: entry to the sufferer’s cellphone.
“However that is what it actually all comes right down to, is the telephones. We do most of our banking on the telephones, folks don’t carry as a lot money anymore,” Gilliam mentioned. “So what they’re doing, and particularly, that is the place it has developed, particularly the feminine that was going to Pilates. They have been asking for her Money App. They needed to get in her Money App and get cash that method. So that is one thing that folks have to grasp is that they is probably not going after money. They could be going after your apps and the right way to get into your apps.”
“If they’ll maintain the cellphone as much as your face, if they’ll beat you till you give them passcodes, they are going to go in and switch cash,” he mentioned.
