Two off-duty Chicago cops were among four men targeted by a group of gun-wielding robbers earlier this week as they left a late night bar in Pilsen.
The men had just left La Vaca Margarita Bar about 4:10 a.m. Sunday when four masked robbers hopped out of a Nissan Maxima in the 1000 block of West 16th Street and “swarmed” them while aiming handguns. One of the guns was equipped with a green laser sight, according to a police report.
“Just let it be,” one of the robbers said. “Don’t do anything.”
The robbers rifled through the victims’ pockets and grabbed their wallets, two cellphones, $70 in cash and various bank cards, the report states. More alarming, the suspects made off with the officers’ police IDs and a keycard to enter the Chicago Lawn District police station, prompting an internal alert.
No one was hurt, according to the report.
On-duty cops who responded to an officer-in-distress call learned the robbers fled west on 16th Street, the report states. The suspects were described as four Black men ages 18 to 25, between 5-foot-8 and 6-foot and wearing dark clothing. They weren’t spotted during a search of the area.
While shootings, homicides and carjackings have all fallen this year, robberies have become a growing problem across the city.
The number of robberies has climbed 24% so far this year, while the number of robbery victims has jumped 44%, according to city data. In the Near West District, where Sunday’s stickup occurred, the number of robberies has jumped 59% from the same point last year, climbing from 377 to 601.
Asked Wednesday about his plans to address the robbery surge, new Police Supt. Larry Snelling said the department will target organized “crews,” leverage technology to track suspects and work with lawmakers “to hold people accountable for these types of violent crimes.”
“We all know that robberies could lead to something higher, so we want to make sure that we keep the city safe in this way,” Snelling told reporters after he was unanimously confirmed. “We’re also going to have teams that we put together just to focus on these particular types of incidents.”
