Police helicopter tracks GameStop robbers from Rogers Park to the Far South Side

CHICAGO — A secret GPS tracker allowed a Chicago police helicopter to find and comply with a carload of armed robbers for greater than 25 miles throughout town, leading to one arrest, in accordance with prosecutors.

The theft occurred at GameStop, 1751 West Howard, final Tuesday night. 4 males walked in, pepper-sprayed a 25-year-old feminine worker, and took management of keys to entry two money drawers, in accordance with a CPD report.

Police mentioned the crew escaped in a purple SUV with $1125, a $25 gamer headset, and that pesky GPS tracker. One in all CPD’s helicopters positioned the SUV and adopted all of it the way in which to the 13000 block of South Ellis, the place it parked, and the 4 males bumped into a close-by house. The helicopter crew gave floor models the precise tackle.

Cops went to the house and noticed somebody run out the again. That particular person received away. In the meantime, a girl allowed officers into the home, the place they ordered 18-year-old Dequan O’Neil to return out of the toilet, the CPD report mentioned. He complied.

After the GPS monitoring firm activated an alarm on the gadget, cops discovered it hidden amongst a stack of money inside a field of “miscellaneous objects” within the rest room O’Neil had been in, in accordance with the report.

Two GameStop staff recognized O’Neil as one of many robbers, prosecutors mentioned in a detention petition. Decide Susana Ortiz granted the state’s request, noting that O’Neil accomplished juvenile probation lower than a yr in the past for aggravated theft whereas armed with a knife.