Daywatch: Crew tactics in robbery waves challenge Chicago police and feds
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Good morning, Chicago.
The call that came over the police radio last Monday morning was startling if familiar by now: Two men in a stolen car committing robberies at gunpoint across Chicago’s South Side.
Within a span of minutes, the robbers held up employees at two discount stores and stole wallets and other belongings from pedestrians on the street. All of the victims described having guns pointed in their faces, according to police and court records. One was knocked to the ground.
This time, police quickly caught a 25-year-old suspect after an alert witness saw two men matching the robbers’ description running from a stolen Kia with bags in their hands on South Carpenter Street, according to court records.
But it’s a drop in the bucket.
In the days before and after those robberies, waves of other stickups were happening around the city, including a driver accosted by rifle-toting teens as he was unloading his car in Bucktown, a woman carjacked at gunpoint in Rogers Park, students walking near DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus and a bar worker mugged after leaving work in the West Loop.
While armed robberies are nothing new in Chicago, a disturbing new pattern has emerged in recent months where crews of robbers — many of them juveniles — toting high-powered weapons go on crime sprees, robbing or carjacking multiple victims in a matter of minutes, often using stolen cars and dressed head to toe in black.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Jason Meisner, Sam Charles and Jake Sheridan.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
Subscribe to more newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition
As rising temperatures threaten urban wildlife, Chicago experts recommend protecting green spaces: ‘Give animals a seat at the table’
When a family of red foxes popped up in Lurie Garden in May, frolicking through Millennium Park and grooming each other on a concrete slab, Seth Magle said it was an exciting development for a species that is becoming increasingly rare in the Chicago area.
But city dwelling may no longer be an option for foxes for long, Magle said, as urbanization and climate change threaten their homes.
A government shutdown is averted with a temporary funding bill. But what happens during a shutdown?
Congress has averted for now a threatened government shutdown that would have disrupted many services, squeezed federal employees and roiled politics.
In a shutdown, some government entities would be exempt — Social Security checks, for example, would still go out — and other functions would be severely curtailed. But what else happens during a government shutdown?
Chicagoan sets record for oldest skydiver at 104 years old: ‘Age is just a number’
At 104 years old, Dorothy Hoffner fell.
Then she kept falling, and falling, and falling. And when the lifelong Chicagoan finally touched the ground Sunday, she landed in the history books and became the oldest person to ever sky-dive.
“Age is just a number,” Hoffner told a cheering crowd moments after touching the ground at the Skydive Chicago Airport in Ottawa.
After months of protest, Amazon set to open in West Humboldt Park to mixed reception. ‘A job beats no job.’
After months of delays, Amazon will begin operating a delivery facility at Division Street and Kostner Avenue in West Humboldt Park in early October. The company plans to fill 350 full- and part-time jobs.
Community groups have attempted to wrangle commitments from Amazon related to local hiring and wages for around two years, but they have mostly stopped short of trying to keep the warehouse from opening.
Column: On a career day for QB Justin Fields, the Bears seemed to be on the verge of an important breakthrough. Until they weren’t.
Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields couldn’t really comprehend Sunday how a positive afternoon had turned so dreadful, how his most productive outing as an NFL quarterback had been punctuated by two late turnovers in a gutting three-point home loss.
Chicago Cubs fans mourn the end of the season as club comes up just short of making the playoffs
Some fans still headed to Wrigleyville on Sunday afternoon to cheer on the Cubs from afar during their last regular season game against the Brewers in Milwaukee. A few mourned the end of the season, some made plans for next year and others decided to change the channel to the Bears game — which also didn’t bode well for Chicago sports fans.
Enrich Chicago’s racial impact survey finds equity still lacking across arts and culture ecosystem
Three years after the racial reckoning following George Floyd’s murder, Enrich Chicago, a nonprofit working to address systemic racism in the arts, released results of a survey showing work remains to be done to improve racial equity in the arts and culture sector in the city.
Have $100? This four-bedroom home in Mount Greenwood could be yours.
The ancient Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus is credited for first delivering the adage, “You have to spend money to make money.”
Community leaders of Gaelic Park in Oak Forest are testing Plautus’ hypothesis by investing over half a million dollars into building a home in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood neighborhood that will be raffled off with the proceeds going to Gaelic Park Charities.
