Several Cars Damaged By Rock Throwers On Skyway
Updated 05/10/12 - 5:15 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police were talking with two "persons of interest" Thursday after several vehicles were damaged on the Chicago Skyway late Wednesday by thrown rocks.
Shortly before 9 p.m., Chicago police officers were responding to a call of shots fired near 105th Street and Indianapolis Avenue, near the Indiana state line, when police also received reports of multiple cars damaged on the Skyway.
As CBS 2's Susanna Song reports, police shut down the eastbound Skyway for about two hours to conduct a manhunt for reports of gunmen shooting at cars passing by on the Skyway.
But after SWAT teams and K-9 units searched on foot and a police helicopter scoped the area from above, police could not find any bullets or shell casings. It turned out that somebody -- or perhaps a group of people -- was throwing rocks at cars. Police found a stack of rocks lined up along a railroad next to the Skyway.
CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports a large semi truck was among the vehicles damaged. As many as six other cars pulled off the Skyway after they were damaged at an on-ramp near 105th Street and Indianapolis Avenue.
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Lamont Clark and his girlfriend were driving back to Chicago from Indiana Wednesday night, when something hit their sunroof.
"We got on the Skyway, we heard a loud boom, the car kind of shifted for a minute, glass shattered," he said. "We didn't know what had happened. We thought we had got hit by someone from the rear end, and then we noticed the cars on the side. About six cars already on the side, on the shoulder. And I told my girlfriend to pull over. We pulled over and we noticed the sun roof looked like it had been shot out."
His girlfriend was driving at the time and was examined by paramedics at the scene, because of shattered glass that hit her in the face. She was not seriously hurt.
Clark took his car to an auto repair shop Thursday morning, and he insisted the damage was not from rocks.
"I refuse to believe that. I do not believe that was a rock done shattered it," Clark said.
He said he and his girlfriend won't be going back on the Skyway anytime soon.
"The thing about it was, I went out there -- the cigarettes are so high in Chicago -- I went out there to buy cheap cigarettes," he said. "I think I'll be going somewhere else, now."
After that scare, he said it's not worth it to go all the way to Indiana for cheaper cigarettes.
Clark's car is insured, but he said he still has to pay a $300 deductible for the damage, which he's not very happy about.
Police had no more information about the case Thursday beyond the questioning of the persons of interest.
