A Beverly family carjacked outside their Far Southwest Side home earlier this month had a second vehicle stolen from their property on Tuesday, according to the local alderman.
The second theft came just 12 days after the same family was victimized in an attack captured on surveillance video and broadcast by local news. Two suspects were in police custody Tuesday evening in connection to the thefts, according to Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th.
In the first theft, police said a 46-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl were getting out of their car on the 9300 block of South Pleasant Avenue around 8:45 p.m. on Nov. 2 when two men approached them.
Police said the men produced guns, pushed the woman to the ground, took her keys and drove away in the car. Neither of the victims, who were mother and daughter, was injured, police said.
Then around 7:20 a.m. Tuesday, police said officers responded to a robbery call at the same location as the prior carjacking. A second vehicle taken from the property was later recovered on the 9700 block of South Merrill Avenue.
Police said they did not generate a case report for the theft and could not immediately confirm that the two thefts were related.
O’Shea speculated that the men who executed the Nov. 2 carjacking took key fobs for both of the family’s cars in the initial theft.
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“They obtained fobs for the two family vehicles, one of which they stole (during the Nov. 2 carjacking),” he said. “They made off with the fob in their possession. Early this morning, someone associated with this crew came back and stole a second family vehicle from in front of the home.”
O’Shea said he was “hopeful” that federal prosecutors will also investigate the pair of robberies, adding that the victims were having trouble adjusting after the thefts. “They are struggling, as you can imagine,” he said.
He called for auto manufacturers to build more theft prevention devices into their vehicles and for the city of Chicago to boost its investments in license plate readers and helicopters to help police track stolen cars.