SOUTH LOOP — The woman who raised more than $5,000 after a South Loop robber chipped her tooth and stole her purse on Valentine's Day said she's grateful the incident didn't turn out much worse.
Lucy Zukaitis, 28, said she was scraping ice off her running car after work late Sunday night when she found a man in her driver's seat. When she hit him with her ice scraper the robber knocked her to the ground, chipped her tooth, and threatened to shoot her. He then took her purse and left with an accomplice in another car.
"I'm surprised I didn't get myself killed," Zukaitis said. "It could have been much worse."
Zukaitis, an actress who lives in Lincoln Park but for the past month has been working at the Tommy Gun's dinner theatre, 2114 S. Wabash Ave., said she left her shift Sunday with more than $600 in her purse. She visited a dentist Monday but doesn't know how much her total dental bill will cost.
Zukaitis' boyfriend launched a GoFundMe campaign after her attack that has raised more than $5,000 since it went online Monday.
"Lucy screamed as loud as she could, but no one was around to hear. She tried reaching in the criminal's car to take her purse back, but the robber said he would shoot her, pushed her to the ground, and sped off," the post reads.
"Not only did Lucy lose her purse that had over $600 from the two doubles she worked this weekend, all her expensive makeup, and personal items, she chipped her front tooth in half from the fall."
The robbery fits a pattern reported by police last month, in which robbers armed with a gun approach people near their cars in the South Loop and demand valuables. In one instance, a victim's car was stolen too. Robert Klich, the neighborhood's new police commander, told South Loop neighbors earlier this month he plans to deploy more plainclothes officers in unmarked cars to quell the robberies.
The GoFundMe page originally said the robbery occurred near 18th Street and Wabash Avenue, but police say they were called to an armed robbery Sunday night near the 2100 block of South Wabash Avenue. Zukaitis' boyfriend Eric Vecchione said he mistakenly identified the intersection in his initial GoFundMe post.
"When the victim tried to grab her bag back from the offender he pushed her to the ground, causing minor injury," police said via email. "The offender fled in a black sedan in an unknown direction. The victim refused medical attention on scene. The offender did not display a weapon, but implied he had one."
Zukaitis said she likes her South Loop job, and plans to return to work Friday. She believes she'll either carpool with colleagues or park in a gated lot reserved for bar patrons. Though she was "frazzled" by Sunday's robbery, she's also "beyond grateful" for the unexpected support she received via the GoFundMe campaign.
"I felt like there’s a lot of awful evil people in the world, which is true, but seeing this reassures me there are a lot of kind, beautiful wonderful, people here too," Zukaitis said.
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