Latest Delivery Driver Held Up In Chicago: I Quit
(CBS) – He thought he was going to die.
A FedEx driver was held up Thursday at gunpoint – the latest delivery driver to be robbed – and says he's calling it quits.
CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports.
There have been several incidents in recent months, with delivery drivers and other workers robbed at gunpoint on the job.
John Charles, the driver robbed Thursday, says he thought it would never happen to him.
He says he had just delivered a package at 80th in Langley when a young man appeared at his delivery truck.
"He came over and he pointed the gun right at me," Charles says. "He hopped into the passenger side seat."
He says the says the gunman, who looked young and nervous, told him to drive into an alley.
"I was very hesitant about turning into the alley," the driver says. "I knew he was going to shoot me once we got into the alley."
After giving up his debit card and cell phone he was asked to start opening up packages in the back of the truck.
Instead, Charles says, he fled from the truck for his life.
A FedEx driver for six years, Charles says he never worried about being held up. After today, he says, he's had enough.
"He had his hand on the trigger. It seemed like he was just going to shoot me at any moment," the driver says.
Charles says he doesn't think he'll be back on the job after the experience.
Resident Renee Williams said the neighborhood has had enough.
"We're not tolerating it," Williams said. "We watch out for our neighbors, we watch out for each other, we watch out for our FedEx drivers and our UPS drivers and our U.S. Postal drivers because we have that rapport with them. We have a good rapport."
Williams and other neighbors joined Activist Andrew Holmes in passing out flyers, asking anyone for information or surveillance video of the robberies.
At least three employees of companies like FedEx and UPS have been robbed at gunpoint in the area over the past few weeks.