4 teens charged after crash in stolen car on Eisenhower Expressway
CHICAGO (SUN TIMES MEDIA WIRE) - Charges have been filed against four teenage boys after an Eisenhower Expressway crash in a stolen vehicle connected to two west suburban carjackings.
Illinois State Police troopers tried to stop a 2016 white Toyota Camry about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday on I-290 near Central Avenue, according to a statement from state police. The Toyota had been reported stolen in an earlier carjacking in Maywood.
The Toyota drove off when troopers tried to pull it over and later crashed on the ramp from eastbound I-290 to Ashland, state police said. Four teenage boys got out and tried to run away on foot, but were captured by responding officers.
The driver, a 15-year-old, was charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding, reckless driving and driving without a valid license, state police said. He and the three other boys, all 17, were also charged with criminal trespass to a motor vehicle. One of them was also charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
The same Toyota was used in a carjacking earlier that morning in the parking garage of Oakbrook Center mall in west suburban Oak Brook, according to Oak Brook police. A 68-year-old woman was sitting in her Honda Civic at 9:36 a.m. when the Toyota pulled up behind her and blocker her into her parking spot.
A male then stepped out of the Toyota and approached the woman, showing a firearm and ordering her to get out of her car, Oak Brook police said. The woman got out of the car and rushed to open the rear door to get her purse before running away. The male got into the vehicle, but then ran after the woman to retrieve her purse.
The carjacker drove off in the woman’s Honda in an unknown direction while another male drove away in the Toyota, Oak Brook police said. No injuries were reported.
The Honda was later found 800 block of North Kilbourn in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood, Oak Brook police said.