BUCKTOWN — A man smoking outside Marie's Rip Tide Lounge in Bucktown Sunday was confronted by a thief who, when told he had no cash or cell phone, opted to take a pair of gold earrings instead.
The victim, who asked to only be identified as Nick, was outside the lounge at 1745 W. Armitage Ave. about 2:50 a.m. when the robber approached, police said.
He told him to hand over his money and cell phone — but Nick said he had left both in the bar when he went out to the parking lot. Nick said he could see something under the man's shirt that could have been a gun or other weapon.
When Nick told the thief that he'd left everything inside the bar, the robber turned his attention to the $300 gold earrings Nick's fiancée gave him for his birthday in June.
"Well, then let me get those earrings," the robber said, according to Nick.
Nick told his friends in the bar about the stickup, and they chased the robber. But it was responding police officers who caught the robbery suspect.
That alleged thief — Derrick Rush, 18 — was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery, according to Officer Michael Sullivan, a Chicago Police Department spokesman.
Nick got his earrings back, he said.
"When you're in that situation, you never know what's going to happen," he said. "I've got two daughters. I didn't know if I was going to go home to see them. I'm just happy that they got him."
Rush, of the 2500 block of East 106th Street in South Deering, appeared Monday in bond court, where a Cook County judge ordered him held on $75,000 bond.
- Alisa Hauser and Erin Meyer contributed reporting
