Bucktown Woman Shaken After Being Carjacked During Saturday Morning Spree, And She's Not The First Victim In Her Family
CHICAGO (CBS) -- At this point, neighbors in on area of Bucktown are afraid to warm up their cars, or dig out the snow with the car running.
They say you never know who's watching, and they feeling of, "Am I next?" for a carjacking.
As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported, a community alert has been issued by Chicago Police about a group that might be using a stolen BMW sport-utility vehicle as a getaway car – and has been terrorizing people in Bucktown.
We know there are three assailants. Two have guns, and they are running up and robbing and carjacking people.
The carjackers struck Saturday the following times and locations in Bucktown and Logan Square.
CBS 2's Terry talked with one woman, Eloise Zarco, who was the second person in her family to get hit up. She was carjacked in the 2300 block of West McLean Avenue Saturday morning.
How many times Zarco will clear the sidewalk should be her biggest worry.
"There's no reason why crime, like why we should be living in fear," she said.
Zarco has lived in Bucktown for 30 years, but over the weekend – she was subjected to horror moments after she parked her car.
"I see the blue BMW just speed down just and stop," she said.
A neighbor's surveillance video captured two tweens running toward Zarco's car.
"I'm looking at them and I'm very confused as to why they're rushing towards me, until they pull out their guns and they say, 'Give me your keys,'" Zarco said. "I yelled and threw them."
The thieves grabbed the keys, and that was when the blue BMW SUV sped off.
"It wasn't just one gun pointed at me. It was two guns," Zarco said, "and that was terrifying within itself."
And it happens that she is not the only member of her family to be carjacked recently.
"My om was carjacked two summers ago," Zarco said.
Police said the trio in the BMW SUV was busy Saturday, from Bucktown to Logan Square. At 12:50 a.m., they robbed someone in the 2900 block of North Milwaukee Avenue. By 6 a.m., they found another victim in the 3500 block of West Wabansia Avenue, and at 9:06 a.m., they stole Zarco's car – all by gunpoint.
"They had extended mags," Zarco said. "They were large guns."
Zarco said the armed thieves were young – barely able to drive.
"They couldn't even work my car, because they couldn't take it off the emergency brake," Zarco said. "They were sitting there for a while revving the engine trying to take off."
Late Monday, no one was in custody in the robberies and carjackings. But we know Chicago Police are actively working the case and trying to catch the trio.
Anyone with information is asked to call Area Five detectives at (12) 746-7394.
