Oak Park Robbery Victim: 'He Was On My Back'
OAK PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- An Oak Park woman says she was screaming at the top of her lungs with her nose bloodied after being attacked this week.
The victim, who did not want her name used, spoke exclusively to CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot.
"I walked outside of the garage and I was closing the back garage door, and the person just jumped on me from behind," she said.
Police said the robber grabbed her outside her garage in the 200 block of South Harvey Avenue in Oak Park, and took her purse, which had $40 in it.
"He was on my back, and he grabbed me sort of around the neck," she said.
The woman was not seriously injured, but, she said: "I ended up with a bloody nose. I'm not sure how that happened."
"I started yelling, 'Help!' and I didn't stop yelling, 'Help!' until he ran away," she said.
The woman described her attacker as being about 5 feet 9 inches tall, 200 pounds, medium build, unknown age. A witness said the suspect ran from the Harvey Avenue alley to the driver's side of a light-colored newer model Ford sport-utility vehicle or Jeep Cherokee, and drove away westbound. Another witness described the car as possibly an older model.
On March 30, a woman was robbed on the 200 block of Lake Street. A second incident took place on April 2, near Lake Street and Austin Boulevard. The third happened on April 4 on the 200 block of North Oak Park Avenue.
The victim in the robbery on April 4 was able to help police create a composite sketch of the suspect.
"I mean, he got $100, but he almost killed me," victim Lisa Dodge said. "He jumped me, he started strangling me. He threw me to the ground and started basically trying to kill me for my purse."
About an hour before the attack on Harvey Avenue, another woman was attacked in her back yard in Oak Park, but police said they don't believe that robbery was related to the other four.
That attack happened about 10:50 p.m. in the 900 block of South Lyman Avenue. In that incident, the man entered the yard through the rear gate, punched the woman "several times" and then demanded her purse. He ran off westbound through the Harrison Street alley. The woman was treated for facial bleeding and transported to Oak Park Hospital.
Anyone with any information regarding these incidents is asked to contact Oak Park police at 708-386-3800, or e-mail at police@oak-park.us. Information can be forwarded anonymously by calling 708-434-1636, or online at www.oak-park.us/police.
