CHICAGO — At first, it was a carjacking, a miles-long apparent kidnapping and a search for a runaway carjacker, complete with news helicopters hovering above.
But now police don't know what to make of a report from a woman who said she was carjacked in River North and dumped in Schaumburg early Friday morning.
Schaumburg police called off the search for the man who allegedly attacked and carjacked the woman in her mid-20s after she told them she didn't want to pursue charges if he was caught.
That came after police called in dogs and search teams to find the alleged attacker near Woodfield Mall, said Schaumburg Police Sgt. John Nebl.
The woman, who left Schaumburg's police station at 8 a.m., told authorities not to continue with the case.
"She told us she did not want to press the case any further," Nebl said.
Both Nebl and Chicago Police said that the woman may have called off the case for any number of reasons — including that it may have been made up, been a domestic case that she didn't want on the record or was too traumatized to push the case.
"I personally don't want to read into that," Nebl said. "It could be anything."
Chicago cops still want to talk with her because a police report has been filed in the city. But they haven't concluded anything about the case, said Officer Robert Perez, a Chicago police spokesman.
"For her to not want to pursue anything all of the sudden, it doesn't seem right to a normal person," Perez said.
Schaumburg police responded to an OnStar emergency alert about 4 a.m. Friday near East Higgins Road and Plum Grove Road.
Police found the woman who issued the alert near a hotel at National Parkway and East Woodfield Road.
The woman told police she was carjacked at 3:45 a.m. Friday while getting into her Cadillac SUV at North LaSalle and West Oak streets in Chicago.
The man first tried to take her purse, she said. She struggled with him, and he hit her in the face before getting into her SUV, police said. The attacker then drove her in the SUV to Schaumburg, police said.
Once in Schaumburg, the man stopped and ran off, leaving the SUV and the woman on the 1100 block of East Woodfield Road in Schaumburg, police reported.
