WICKER PARK — A Univision news crew was robbed in Wicker Park early Monday morning, the latest in an ongoing surge of attacks in the neighborhood and across the North Side.
Around 4:30 a.m. Monday, a news reporter and a photojournalist were preparing for a live shot on the 1200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue when a black SUV and a grey sedan pulled up to them, a police spokesperson and the reporter said.
Three men “wearing ski masks and displaying firearms” got out of the vehicles and took numerous belongings from the news crew before fleeing, police said.
In an email Monday, Univision Chicago vice president of news Luis Godinez confirmed the two men robbed were Univision employees, and that they are safe. No injuries were reported and Area 5 detectives are investigating.
The reporter, who asked to remain anonymous, told Block Club on Monday he and his photographer were preparing to do a series of live shots about recent armed robberies in the area when they were robbed. The news crew was parked on Milwaukee Avenue just north of Ashland Avenue and Division Street.
The fact that he and his photographer are now part of the larger story, the reporter said, is “total irony.”
“As a journalist, you never want to be the story, right? You’re reporting on the story but you never think that you can become the story. That’s not why we do this,” he said. “So I guess it’s another reminder of how important it is to keep doing these stories and to keep pressure on our local authorities to try to prevent more events like that.”
The reporter said the only thing of value stolen was the crew’s video camera. While he and the photographer were rattled by the attack, they’re both doing OK, he said.
He said the robbery should act as a warning to both reporters and news crews, but also anyone else across Chicago to remain vigilant.
“This could happen to anybody. So it’s an eye opener, for anyone that works in news that this could happen. It happened to me early in the morning, but I think it could literally happen any time of day,” he said.
Community-focused. Reader-funded. Journalist-run.
Support Chicago’s neighborhood news. Support Block Club today.
Monday’s robbery, first reported by CWB Chicago, is the latest in a widespread spike in similar incidents across Wicker Park, Bucktown, and West Town.
In early August, police reported at least 19 robberies in Logan Square in a two day period.
So far in 2023, Chicago’s 1st Ward, which includes parts of Wicker Park, West Town and Logan Square — and the street where the news crew was robbed — has seen at least 164 robberies. That’s up from 126 in 2022 and 94 in 2021, year-to-date.
Carjackings have dropped in the ward after a citywide spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 11 reported so far in 2023, compared to 31 by this point in 2022 and 36 in 2021, according to the city’s data portal.
But just hours before the news crew was robbed Monday, a woman was carjacked on the same block around 10:15 p.m. Sunday, according to police.
According to a police media alert, three men approached the woman, with one man pointing a gun at her and demanding she hand over her car keys. The men then stole the woman’s white SUV and fled, police said.
Support Local News!
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods. Already subscribe? Click here to gift a subscription, or you can support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.
Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:
