Man, teen boy charged with armed robbery at Homer Glen gas station

A man and a teenage boy have been charged with robbing a gas station at gunpoint early Monday in southwest suburban Homer Glen.

Wallace I. Thomas, 18, and the juvenile boy were each charged with aggravated armed robbery for the hold-up about midnight at the Speedway gas station at 15060 S. Bell Road in Homer Glen, according to a statement from the Will County Sheriff’s Office.

The boy walked into the gas station wearing a blue jumpsuit with a hood, blue rubber gloves and a white pillowcase on his head with eyeholes cut out and pointed a black handgun at an employee, the sheriff’s office said.

The employee emptied $116 from the cash register into a bag before running out of the store to try to get help, the sheriff’s office said. The boy ran outside and got into a vehicle that was north on Bell Road, and the vehicle drove off.

The employee flagged down a bystander in a nearby parking lot and told the person about the robbery, the sheriff’s office said. That person followed the robber’s vehicle while the employee called police.

The witness lost sight of the vehicle on Bell Road near McCarthy Road in Lemont, but was able to provide police with a license plate number, the sheriff’s office said. Detectives eventually traced the vehicle back to Thomas’ home in Plainfield.

Thomas was at school when officers arrived at his home, but the vehicle’s owner gave them permission to search the vehicle, which was parked in the garage, police said. Inside the vehicle, they found a blue latex glove near a folded-up dollar bill between the front and rear passenger seats.

Wallace was arrested at his school in Joliet and confessed to his role in the robbery, police said. He also identified the boy.

Investigators found the pillowcase with eyeholes cut out inside the boy’s Bolingbrook home, the sheriff’s office said. Another blue latex glove and a black handgun-style BB gun were found inside the pillowcase.

Wallace was taken to the Will County Adult Detention Facility and was expected to appear in court Tuesday, according to the sheriff’s office. The boy was taken to the River Valley Justice Center.