CHICAGO — Delivery drivers have been robbed at gunpoint twice in August in the Englewood District, according to police.
There have been an uptick of armed robberies in the area this month, and two involved restaurant delivery drivers and took place in the 7000 block of South Perry Avenue in Grand Crossing. The thieves were armed with guns and sometimes wore masks, according to police.
Delivery drivers were robbed four times in one day on the same block in late July in North Lawndale. Delivery drivers were also targeted in nearby Austin earlier in July, with three being robbed at gunpoint July 1-10.
And earlier in the year, a driver who asked to be identified only as Connie said she had been robbed four times in four winters, once at gunpoint, as a driver, according to a March 9 DNAinfo story.
At the time, Martin Maloney, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said "this type of robbery is not common." He said robberies citywide were down 6 percent from March 2014 to this March.
Some restaurant owners and drivers disagreed, with Miguel De Arcos, of De Arcos Pizza in South Chicago, saying his drivers were being targeted once a week on average.
"It's not a very safe job," said Craig Gernhardt, 53. Gernhardt was using a bike to make deliveries in Rogers Park and Edgewater. "You're driving around all alone without any protection, with cash, and you're being called to an address where you have no idea who's there waiting for you."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
