Bucktown armed robbery victims speak out on incident caught on video: ‘Like an ambush’
By Ravi Baichwal, Christian Piekos
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CHICAGO (WLS) — A Chicago couple said they were chased down and robbed at gunpoint in the Bucktown neighborhood over the weekend.
Video of the incident, captured by home surveillance cameras, shows the couple with their arms up Saturday night.
That couple spoke with ABC7 Chicago anonymously Tuesday, and said everything has changed after they lived through a horrifying armed robbery Saturday night.
The man said he’s now considering getting a concealed carry permit, and his girlfriend is traumatized by being held at gunpoint.
“Not knowing if you’re going to be alive, if you’re going to be shot. It’s a feeling that no one should ever feel. It’s the most terrifying feeling I’ve ever felt,” she said.
A couple’s evening walk turned into an anxiety-inducing nightmare, when they were robbed at gunpoint about 11 p.m. in the 1700-block of North Winchester Avenue.
“The whole thing took like a minute,” the man said.
“Maybe even less, maybe 30 seconds. It was so fast; it was so scary,” his girlfriend added.
The video shows three people jumping out of a car and ambushing the couple, taking a phone and wallet from the two.
The man raises his hands and complies with the suspects, who they describe as just teenagers.
“They open the doors, and immediately it’s nefarious. They all had guns,” he said.
“It was like an ambush,” she added.
“They start rushing towards us up the sidewalk. We try to make a break for it,” the man said.
The couple said they feel helpless after the attack and are now even warier of their surroundings. They are urging others to have a plan in case this happens again.
“You just never think this will happen to you until it happens to you. It changes everything,” the woman said. “It’s really sad. I am absolutely dealing with some PTSD from this.”
The couple said they don’t have plans to move from the area, but do want to see more action from the city on apprehending these crimes.
“We need to get tougher on crime. It’s almost like it’s legal to go rob people at gunpoint,” the man said.
Chicago police said they didn’t have any suspects in custody Tuesday, but Area Five detectives are investigating.
Police would not link this armed robbery to two other incidents that happened in nearby in the last two days. In one incident in Roscoe Village, police said a 35-year-old man was attacked by a group of two to three young men just after 11 p.m. One struck him on the head with a gun and the group got away with his personal property.
Less than half an hour before that incident and a mile east, police said two men aged 23 and 31 were robbed in the 1600-block of West Waveland in Lakeview, by three armed men who jumped out of a dark sedan and demanded their property.
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