Man stabbed at Wicker Park store during attempted theft

CHICAGO (WLS) -- An employee of a retail store was stabbed Wednesday afternoon in the Wicker Park neighborhood.

The 27-year-old was stabbed in his abdomen at 3:54 p.m. while working at a cell phone store in the 1800 block of West Division, Chicago Police said.

He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition stabilized, police said.

"It surprises me, but I guess phones are something to steal. It's crazy," said Melanie Krawczyk, Wicker Park resident.

Before the stabbing, between 4 and 5 teenage boys had entered the store and tried to take items for sale without paying, police said.

"That's very unfortunate. I feel like there's a lot of stuff going on. You want to try and stop people, but bad things happen. It's crazy," said Wicker Park resident Lauren Muender.

A Chicago police investigation is ongoing.

At least four downtown cell phone stores have been similarly targeted in the past 10 days. Police said in those incidents a group of offenders grabbed display phones and threatened to stab store employees if they intervened. A knife was shown in at least one of the robberies, police said.

"It's kind of crazy. Definitely didn't think that was going on around here, so it's kind of shocking I guess," Muender said.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.