5 armed robberies happen within 11 minutes in Hyde Park, Kenwood: UChicago police alert

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Lorretta Brown was robbed at gunpoint on her birthday within seconds.

It happened around 6:20 p.m. Saturday on Lake Park Avenue near 41st in the Oakland neighborhood.

"I would never forget my 52nd birthday," Brown said.

Brown said she had just returned from a birthday dinner, and was getting out of her car, about to head into her home, when a dark gray colored four-door car pulled up. The windows then came down.

"It happened in a matter of, like, 30 seconds. They were parked a little further up and told me to give them everything. I just threw it," Brown said. "I threw the car keys, the house keys, and everything."

She described seeing three teen boys with their automatic weapons pointed at her, demanding her belongings.

"The guy that got out the car and was pointing the gun, he was really nervous," Brown said. "Clean-cut. They didn't have their face covered at all. They're bold."

Brown, a retired Illinois State parole officer and mother of two, was apparently not the only victim as police are investigating a string of armed robberies on the city's South Side.

"They had just came from around the corner robbing someone else and they dropped the cell phone three houses down," Brown said. "The detective had to come to get the fingerprints because they said it was, like, out of control."

She wasn't the only one. University of Chicago police sent an alert to the campus community about a string of armed robberies that happened Saturday on the city's South Side.

Five armed robberies happened within 11 minutes in Hyde Park and Kenwood, and are possibly connected, the Chicago Police Department reported to campus police

.

READ MORE | Logan Square robbery: 3 men robbed at gunpoint, Chicago police say

In each robbery, there were four armed suspects in a gray Nissan Maxima. Specific details about each crime were not immediately available.

The Chicago Police Department is investigating the robberies, which happened at the following times and locations:

Aug. 26 at approximately 6:13 p.m. at 1453 E. Hyde Park

Aug. 26 at approximately 6:15 p.m. at 4699 S. Ellis

Aug. 26 at approximately 6:19 p.m. at 4132 S. Lake Park

Aug. 26 at approximately 6:22 p.m. at 1098 E. 43rd St.

Aug. 26 at approximately 6:24 p.m. at 5105 S. Harper

Authorities asked anyone with information to call 911 or contact the University of Chicago Police Department at 773-702-8181.

SEE ALSO | Chicago crime: 2 masked men rob 8 Northwest Side businesses at gunpoint, police say

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