Woman robbed at gunpoint in South Loop Whole Foods parking garage

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago police are investigating after a woman was robbed at gunpoint in a Whole Foods parking garage in the South Loop Tuesday.

Police are already investigating a rash of robberies over the last month or so targeting bike riders and drivers. The latest victim was both brave and lucky.

Prime time in a busy South Loop shopping center quickly turned terrifying.

"I got a report to come to the garage," said Whole Foods security guard Mark Bowens.

When Bowens got to the lower level of the parking garage he overheard a woman, parked in a front spot, he said, explaining to police what had happened.

"She had her window down and next thing she knows she saw three guys coming towards her car. She raised her window up, that's when they tapped on the window and had the gun pointed toward her," he said.

With people coming and going, all unaware of what was happening, Bowens said the woman quietly stared down the three men trying to rob her.

"She said all she did was raise her head up, look up. The gun was pointed right at her... phew, boy," Bowens said.

"I don't know how to respond to something like that. I'd think you would be deathly afraid," said David Taylor, Whole Foods shopper.

It's at least the second such situation in the area in just a few days. Friday afternoon police said young men approached a woman in a parking garage at Wabash and 8th Street and demanded her keys before taking off in her Honda Accord.

"When you go shopping you want to feel safe," Taylor said.

"If you come in here and park, they could do anything down here. Whoever these people are know there ain't security down here," Bowens said.

The victim told police the men who approached her were two young men and one older man. After the robbery they jumped into a truck and got away. The license plate of that truck may have been captured on surveillance video.