Three juveniles were charged Sunday night with armed robbery, which sparked a wild chase from Cicero, a west Chicago suburb, to Chicago’s West Side.
Cicero police said the suspects were part of a group that targeted couriers removing cash from gaming machines at the Mobil gas station at 5147 W. Roosevelt Rd. and Laramie Avenue around 3 p.m. on Friday.
According to police, the robbers forced the couriers to the ground at gunpoint, ransacked their vehicle, and stole approximately $70,000.
The robbers fled in a white sedan followed by two “trail vehicles,” Cicero police said.
A townwide camera system that uses license plate readers assisted police in identifying the cars involved as a chase took over Chicago’s streets and expressways. CBS Skywatch captured the cars as they traveled along the Eisenhower Expressway, around the Windy City Smokeout outside the United Center, and beneath the Chicago Transit Authority’s elevated Green Line tracks on the West Side.
The pursuit ended near West End and Kostner avenues in West Garfield Park, where two people were apprehended. Another two people in a white Honda sedan abandoned their car in an alley behind a nearby apartment building. According to police, the three arrested juveniles were in possession of some of the stolen cash.
Meanwhile, a black Chrysler that fled the scene of the robbery was pursued down the Eisenhower Expressway, Tri-State Tollway, Bishop Ford Freeway, and Borman Expressway into northwest Indiana, where two suspects were apprehended after ditching the car in Hammond and running into the Little Calumet River, according to police.
According to Cicero police, cash, drugs, and guns were recovered from multiple vehicles and the West Side apartment.
Each juvenile is charged with two counts of armed robbery and one count of unlawful possession of a weapon. According to police, they have been transferred to the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center.
