Police in Chicago, Illinois, are urging residents to be cautious after a slew of violent robberies focusing on primarily drunk people within the metropolis’s River North neighborhood.
In response to FOX 32, a minimum of 4 incidents have taken place between June 16 and July 6, with one to 3 African American males beating and robbing folks.
The boys befriended individuals who seemed to be intoxicated earlier than stealing their property and beating them, police stated.
The robberies occurred through 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 stated the lads tried to realize entry to her cellphone.
Ledzema stated she had a gun aimed toward her head through the theft and suffered a sprained neck.
“He threw me to the bottom. Later discovered I sprained my neck from this influence. However the 4 of them pulled me again up, they usually held the gun to my head,” Ledzema stated. “There have been three weapons. They held one to me after which one in both path of visitors. Not that there actually was visitors, after which the driving 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 in search of folks’s Money App. Which is likely one of the different issues they requested me for.”
Police tracked down the automobile utilized by the suspects and bought fingerprints. No arrests have been made.
Former FBI particular agent Jonathan Gilliam instructed Fox Information Digital in an interview that the suspects wished one factor: entry to the sufferer’s cellphone.
“However that is what it actually all comes all the way down to, is the telephones. We do most of our banking on the telephones, folks don’t carry as a lot money anymore,” Gilliam stated. “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 wished to get in her Money App and get cash that manner. So that is one thing that folks have to know is that they might not be going after money. They might 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 stated.