3 taxi drivers report being robbed at gunpoint on NW Side: police

An armed group was recently robbing taxi drivers in the Jefferson Park and North Park neighborhoods on the Northwest Side.

Over a one-week period, a trio of males hailed taxi cabs from the Northwest and North Sides, according to a community alert from Chicago police. In the middle of the ride, they pulled out a handgun and demanded the driver’s money and belongings.

The suspects took the driver’s items and ran out the cab in two incidents, police said. In the latest reported robbery, the three males also carjacked the taxi driver and drove away in the cab.

About 6 a.m. Dec. 28, the first armed robbery happened when the offenders called a cab in the Mayfair neighborhood’s 4600 block of North Kasson Avenue to the Jefferson Park neighborhood’s 5700 block of North Central Avenue.

About 1:30 a.m. Jan. 4, the suspects called a cab from the Hollywood Park neighborhood’s 5700 block of North Christiana and robbed the driver in the North Park neighborhood’s 5300 block of North Sawyer Avenue.

About 8 p.m. Jan. 4, a taxi driver picking up the suspects in the West Rogers Park neighborhood’s 6100 block of North Seeley Avenue was robbed and carjacked in the North Park neighborhood’s 5200 block of North Christiana Avenue.

The offenders were described as two young men and a third male in his late teens or early twenties, police said.

Anyone with information on the armed robberies was asked to call Area North detectives at (312) 744-8263.