WEST LOOP — Two attempted carjackings were recently reported after rear-end collisions in the West Loop and Little Italy, following an alarming trend of "bump-and-run" schemes in the area.
In the schemes, one man rear-ends the victim's car, and when the victim gets out to inspect the damage, a second or third man gets into the victim's car and attempts to drive away with it, according to Chicago Police. In early April, two car thefts after rear-end accidents were reported in Little Italy and on the Near West Side.
But in two recent daytime incidents, on April 24 in Little Italy and Monday in the West Loop, the car thieves weren't as successful.
At 9 a.m. April 24, in the midst of the Monday morning rush hour, a woman was the victim of an attempted carjacking at Halsted Street and Roosevelt Road in Little Italy.
The woman, a longtime West Loop resident, said she was in the left turn lane on Halsted when a Toyota Corolla hit her Porsche SUV, "tapping" her SUV "lightly" from behind.
The woman told DNAinfo she pulled to the side of the road near the UIC Pavilion, and after grabbing her insurance card and keys, she exited her SUV.
The young man driving the Toyota pulled over behind her SUV and also exited his car. Another young man was sitting in the passenger seat of the car, the woman observed.
"I was thinking it was just a normal accident," the victim said.
The driver, who she described as initially "polite," apologized for the accident and handed her a document that was not an insurance card, and then got back into the car to talk to the passenger. Because she was not presented with a valid insurance card, the woman said she thought the driver might attempt to flee the scene. She started writing down the Toyota's license plate number.
"They tapped it so lightly, I thought maybe the would run," she said.
The Toyota then started pulling away, and the woman then noticed that the driver's side door to her car was open — and a third man was in it. He quickly exited her car, jumped in the back of the Toyota, and the three men fled the scene.
"They must have had a third accomplice that was waiting on the street," she said. She said the third man was apparently attempting to steal her SUV but was unable to because she took the keys with her. "I was shocked."
The incident was reported to police as an attempted vehicle theft and fraud, police confirmed Thursday. A police detective told the woman that the Toyota Corolla the suspect was driving was previously reported stolen, she said.
"The detectives said they tried to do the exact same thing to someone else 30 minutes after they did it to me," she said.
With so many cars traveling Halsted at 9 a.m., the woman said her guard was down. She wants to alert neighbors to the scheme so they are prepared to act if it happens to them.
"It was scary enough, and nothing happened to me," she said.
The victim described the suspects as young men, 17-21 years of age. The driver was black, about 5-foot-7 and 130 pounds, she said.
West Loop incident
A second attempted carjacking was reported this week in the West Loop, Chicago Police confirmed.
At about 4:45 p.m. Monday, a woman was driving a Porsche in an alley near the 100 block of South Racine Avenue when a small black SUV rear-ended her car, said Officer Jose Estrada, a Chicago police spokesman.
The woman exited the car to check for damage and two men — the SUV's driver and passenger — exited the SUV. One the men engaged the victim in conversation while the second entered her car, attempting to steal it, police said.
The woman then yelled that her dog was inside the car, which prompted the man to flee her car. Both men got back into the SUV and fled the scene.
Neither the victim nor the dog were injured and nothing was stolen in the incident, police said.
The woman reported the incident to police Tuesday, Estrada said.
The suspects are described as two African-American male teens, police said.
No suspects are in custody in the incident and Area Central detectives are investigating.
After the attempted carjacking, a Kass Management property manager sent an e-mail to Condos on Adams residents, alerting them of the incident that occurred near Skinner West Elementary School and Soul City Church.
"Please take note of this to ensure your own safety," the property manager wrote.
In April, two car thefts after rear-end accidents were reported in Little Italy and on the Near West Side.
The car thefts occurred at:
• 5:25 p.m. April 7 in the 1100 block of South Racine Avenue in Little Italy
• 7:30 p.m. April 10 in the 400 block of North Damen Avenue on the Near West Side
In those incidents, the thieves were described as two black men about 25 years old, 5'4"-5'6" and weighing 140 to 160 pounds, police said. One thief possibly has a scar on his face.
Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call police at 312-747-8382.
The Anti-Crime Vehicle Association of Minnesota lists bump-and-runs as a form of carjacking designed to distract drivers.
"People have been conditioned to pull over to exchange information after an accident. This creates the perfect opportunity for a car thief," the association said.
In Baltimore last year, six teens were arrested in a series of such thefts, and the city's commissioner created a task force. A rash of bump-and-runs hit Milwaukee in 2015.
