Woman carjacked in Bucktown amid rash of crimes on Northwest Side, Chicago police say

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A 23-year-old woman was carjacked in the Bucktown neighborhood Tuesday night, Chicago police said.

The woman was getting out of her car at about 10 p.m. in the 1600-block of North Winchester Avenue when police said someone wearing a ski mask approached her on foot.

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The suspect demanded her belongings and the victim turned over her purse, her phone and car keys, police said. The suspect then got into the victim's 2021 Jeep Wrangler, police said.

The attack is the latest in a long list of crimes prompting two community alerts by Chicago police for the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhoods in the last two weeks.

"Everything is vigorously being investigated. The turnaround isn't always as fast as we would like," said Chicago Police Sgt. Jeff Rumbaugh, who works on the carjackings task force.

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City data shows there have been more than 1,300 vehicular hijackings so far this year, up one-third from the same period last year.

CPD shows only 6% of reported carjackings in 2021 have led to an arrest, the same as last year. Both are down, perhaps because while the number of arrests have remained steady, the number of carjackings overall have increased significantly.

32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack said these crimes keep happening because the punishment is not harsh enough.

"It's extremely frustrating and I think these criminals know, the gangs know, if they are not going get punished, they can just keep going at it and even if they see a police officer drive by, they can go commit that crime a minute later because they are doing so many of them and they know they will just get a slap on the wrist," Waguespack said. "For me, it's extremely frustrating to see. I think that is why we are looking at every possible venue to have these prosecuted. We also need to do more to get more officers back on the street and make sure that the community believes in what the police force is doing."

Police will not say if the same suspects are involved in these incidents, but they did say in several reports, they were seen driving in a maroon SUV.