Gunpoint robber on the loose targeting seniors in alleys in Gage Park
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man was robbed at gunpoint when the sun was still up in the Gage Park neighborhood this week – and it turns out the gunman could be linked to other armed robberies on the city's Southwest Side.
As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported Friday night, police believe the same car is involved in two brazen armed robberies – with the targets being elderly people walking by alleys or pulling into garages.
One of the victims was a grandfather, who recalled his fear when he was held up at gunpoint on Wednesday evening.
"Frozen – like complete shock, just completely frozen," the victim said in Spanish with his grandson interpreting.
Here's why – surveillance video shows a man jumping out of a gray-silver Kia in the alley behind the 5200 block of South Artesian Avenue around 6 p.m. Wednesday. The man then ran into a garage with a gun and caught the grandfather off guard.
"And he was telling me, 'Give me your wallet,'" the grandfather said.
Just seconds before the robbery, the video shows the grandfather pulling into the garage. The man's wife caught the robber pointing the gun at her husband's chest from the backyard.
"Even though she wanted to do something, she knew if she did something it might have been even worse," said Eric Rojas, the victim's grandson.
While Rojas' grandfather was too frightened to show his face for this story, Rojas himself is furious.
"These are elderly people. These are people that usually you would think can't defend themselves," Rojas said. "Yet you're here pointing a gun at them - screaming at their face."
It turned out the robber hit up another man in another Gage Park alley a few blocks away a week earlier. At 2:56 p.m. Wednesday, June 29, a man was seen getting out of the same gray-silver Kia with a gun in the alley behind the 5500 block of South Fairfield Avenue.
Police said the robber went through the victim's pockets and took his personal property, and then jumped back in the Kia and left.
"The fact that it was the same individual and it happened just like five, six days apart - it's like really concerning that no one in the neighborhood had any idea," Rojas said.
The same car has been spotted in both robberies, yet Chicago Police have not issued a community alert.
"I feel like they should have at least alerted the people nearby that there was an incident," Rojas said.
The alleys in Gage Park are narrow – forcing people to back into their garages and making them easy targets. Meanwhile, you can find plenty of security cameras nearby, but the gunman in these robberies doesn't care.
"If someone is willing to go out in daylight into alleys with cameras, what's going to stop him?" Rojas said. "What's going to stop him from going out at night? What's going to stop him from pushing his luck and taking other things?"
Police have no one in custody. Those in the community want the robber caught - because they fear if he strikes again, he may use the gun with which he has been committing these robberies.
