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Carjackers Take Man's Infiniti In Jefferson Park; Honda They Used As Getaway Car Crashes, But They Escape

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man was carjacked at gunpoint late Tuesday in the Jefferson Park neighborhood.

A car matching the one in which the carjackers pulled up later crashed several blocks away.

Police said at 8:06 p.m., a 50-year-old man was unloading groceries on the 4900 block of North Mason Avenue when a four-door blue Honda Civic pulled up next to him. Two men got out, and one of them pointed a gun at the man, police said.

The assailant demanded money, but the man said he didn't have any, police said. The suspects then noticed the man's car was running, and one of them jumped in and drove off in the black Infiniti M35 sedan.

Shortly afterward, police tried to pull over a car matching the description of the blue Honda Civic in which the suspects had pulled up, but the car crashed in the 5300 block of West Lawrence Avenue.

All the occupants of the car ran off, but a gun was found inside.

A blue Honda that matches the description of the one that crashed had been stolen at gunpoint early Tuesday morning.

Police said at 1 a.m., two men pulled up in a dark-colored Hyundai sedan in the 2600 block of North St. Louis Avenue, near Wrightwood Avenue, and walked up to the two victims -- a 22-year-old man who was driving and a 20-year-old woman who was a passenger. They pointed a gun at the driver and told both occupants to get out of their blue 2019 Honda hatchback.

The thieves took the victims' cell phones and other items before stealing the car and driving off.

Carjackings were also reported Tuesday in an alley off Bosworth Avenue near Addison Street in Lakeview, in the 4800 block of South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Bronzeville, and in the 4700 block of South Woodlawn Avenue in Kenwood.

If it feels like such things are happening a lot lately, it's because they are. A carjacking epidemic has been gripping Chicago for months, with a rash of incidents in both the city and suburbs this past weekend.

An interactive map at this link shows the change in the number of carjackings in Chicago neighborhoods between 2019 and 2020.

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