Chicago TV Crew Reporting on Robberies Is Robbed at Gunpoint

A television crew reporting on a series of robberies in a Chicago neighborhood got to experience the crime wave firsthand.

(Bloomberg) — A television crew reporting on a series of robberies in a Chicago neighborhood got to experience the crime wave firsthand.

The team, a 28-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman who work for Spanish-language Univision Chicago, had a video camera and other personal belongings stolen on Monday by three armed men wearing ski masks in West Town, according to Luis Godinez, vice president of news at the station.

The footage the team shot was in the stolen camera, so the story never aired, Godinez told the Chicago Tribune.

The incident comes as Mayor Brandon Johnson, who took over about 100 days ago, has faced criticism from business leaders for being slow to deal with crime, having only recently named a new police chief for the third-largest US city. His predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, lost her job this year in part because of surging crime. She became the first Chicago mayor to fail in a reelection bid since 1983.

Chicago has been grappling with rising crime since the pandemic, with overall complaints surging 54% since 2019. Billionaire Ken Griffin has cited violence as one of the reasons for moving his company, Citadel, to Miami. Other business leaders, including the bosses of McDonald’s Corp. and exchange operator CME Group Inc., have also highlighted crime as a concern.

The incident involving the Univision crew, first reported by the Tribune, happened on the 1200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, about a 10-minute drive from the Loop, the city’s central business district. The suspects were driving a black SUV and a gray sedan, according to the police report shared by Univision. No injuries were reported.

Earlier this month the Chicago Police Department reported a string of robberies in the area. In several instances, armed offenders wearing ski masks were driving stolen Kia and Hyundai vehicles and stopping to steal victims’ belongings.

(Updates with video camera being stolen in third paragraph)

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