Two men wearing balaclava-type masks hijacked a vehicle at gunpoint from a 54-year-old Romeoville woman in the east parking lot of North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road, on July 24 at about 5:40 p.m., according to North Riverside police.
The victim told police she arrived at the mall alone at about 4 p.m., parking her purple 2018 Kia Optima in the east lot, in front of the parking deck. After shopping for a while she decided to leave but waiting first until a heavy rain storm blew through the area.
Once the rain subsided the woman walked out to her car. At that time the victim said a gray midsize vehicle quickly pulled up and two masked men jumped out of the backseat and demanded her car keys. The gray vehicle sped away and one of the men pulled out a handgun from his waistband and pointed it at the victim, who handed over her keys.
The Kia was last seen heading eastbound on 25th Street. The woman was not physically injured, but she was emotionally distraught, said police, who called paramedics to assess her condition.
It’s the second carjacking incident in the area in the past couple of months. On June 9, two men hijacked a car in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven gas station at 26th Street and Harlem Avenue in Riverside, just a short distance from the mall.
Those offenders had also gotten out of another vehicle that had brought them to the scene. Both vehicles fled southbound on Harlem Avenue, pursued by police. The vehicle hijacked in Riverside eluded police but the other vehicle crashed after a high-speed chase on I-55 near Channahon.
Police took two men into custody and charged them with felonies. The other two remain at large.
