Two men charged with robbing Orland Park cell phone store at gunpoint

Two south suburban men have been charged with robbing a T-Mobile store at gunpoint in Orland Park Monday afternoon.

Justin J. Martin and James Harden were armed with handguns when they walked into the store at 15615 S. La Grange Road about 2:20 p.m. and ordered five employees into a back office, according to Orland Park police. There were no customers in the store at the time.

Martin, 22, and Harden, 29, filled a garbage bag with an unknown number of cell phones and employees’ personal belongings, police said. The workers were also ordered to empty their pockets.

They took off in a silver SUV eastbound I-80 from La Grange Road, evading police as their vehicle topped 100 mph, police said.

Police in Waterloo, Iowa contacted Orland Park detectives after a similar cell phone store robbery Tuesday in that town, which is about 50 miles northwest of Cedar Rapids. Harden was tracked down to a motel in Postville, Iowa on Wednesday, where he was arrested and charged along with five other men from Chicago and the south suburbs for that robbery, Waterloo police said.

Investigators found Martin in his hometown of Dolton, where he was arrested during a traffic stop Thursday, police said.

The two men each face a count of armed robbery and four counts of aggravated kidnapping.

A judge on Friday ordered Martin held on a $1 million bond, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office. He is due back in court Oct. 15.

After facing the Iowa charge, Harden, a Markham resident, will be extradited to Cook County, police said.