Chicago police located another hijacked vehicle less than two hours after it was taken at gunpoint by three offenders Friday evening on the North Side. They arrested the 18-year-old driver and two juvenile passengers. But none of them is charged with carjacking.
The scenario is similar to another case last week in which cops arrested five people who were with two hijacked SUVs and a third stolen car inside a Rogers Park garage, but prosecutors only filed one felony charge — and it wasn’t for carjacking.
In the latest case, a 43-year-old man was sitting in his GMC Serrano on the 4200 block of North Pulaski when three male offenders approached him and one demanded control of the vehicle at gunpoint, according to a CPD report.
He complied and the group drove away with
his truck around 9:45 p.m.Less than two hours later, around 11:29 p.m., CPD’s hijacking task force located the stolen vehicle near the 3100 block of West Foster. They coordinated with OnStar, General Motors’ security service, which forced the truck to shut down as it entered a McDonald’s parking lot, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Mahoney.
The driver, 18-year-old Hader Garcia, was charged with possession of a stolen motor vehicle, Judge Maryam Ahmad released him on his own recognizance Sunday. She ordered him to stay in the house between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Both juvenile passengers are charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass to a vehicle. According to a source, the juvenile who was in the truck’s back seat has been arrested two other times since October: once for illegal gun possession and for another criminal trespass to a vehicle.
Chicago police have said that they have difficulty getting hijacking charges approved because many carjacking victims are unable to specifically identify the people who are found driving and riding in their stolen cars as the people who took the vehicle from them.
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