A Chicago lady is dealing with theft expenses, accused of working with an unidentified confederate to rob an 89-year-old man on the Blue Line final month. Laura Garcia, 38, was ordered detained by Choose Robert Kuzas following her court docket look, however her alleged confederate stays at giant.
Prosecutors mentioned Garcia and her male confederate have been driving the Blue Line round 8:25 a.m. on February 14, strolling the aisle and asking passengers for cash, claiming it was the confederate’s birthday. At one level, Garcia sat throughout from the 89-year-old sufferer whereas the confederate took a seat instantly behind him, in keeping with a detention petition.
When the sufferer exited on the Division, Garcia and her companion adopted him onto the platform. The confederate got here up behind the sufferer and mentioned, “Give me one thing,” then reached into his pockets, first eradicating napkins earlier than pulling a pockets from his rear pocket, the petition mentioned. The sufferer struck the confederate twice along with his cane, and the person fled down the steps to the place Garcia was allegedly ready.
Prosecutors mentioned the 2 walked again to the platform collectively, the place the confederate handed the pockets to Garcia, who searched it and returned it to him. Garcia then boarded the Blue Line and the confederate left on foot.
Detectives launched a public bulletin final month containing two CTA surveillance photographs of the confederate. However additionally they distributed an inner message to different officers that included extra pictures of the feminine suspect. An officer acknowledged Garcia from these photographs as a result of that they had arrested her on the Monroe Blue Line station on two excellent warrants simply ten days earlier than the theft. A sergeant who supervised the feminine lockup that day additionally recognized her. The theft sufferer later recognized Garcia in a photograph lineup, prosecutors mentioned.
Garcia was lately arrested when she approached a CPD public transport unit within the Loop and the officers acknowledged her from the bulletin, in keeping with a police report.
Along with the theft cost, Garcia had two excellent warrants on the time of her arrest, the CPD report mentioned. Court docket data present dozens of circumstances filed towards her since 2006, nearly all of them misdemeanors. Her felony convictions embody a 2010 DUI, a 2013 aggravated battery inflicting nice bodily hurt to a peace officer, a 2024 narcotics conviction, and two 2025 circumstances — possession of a stolen motorized vehicle and housebreaking — for which she is presently serving psychological well being probation.
Her confederate has not been recognized or charged.
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