Chicago Tribune

4 TEEN GIRLS CHARGED IN CRIME SPREE WITH PELLET GUN

By Jeff Coen, Chicago Tribune Staff Writer
November 9, 1999

Aurora police on Monday said four girls--two 14-year-olds and two 15-year-olds--would face charges in Juvenile Court for allegedly using an air pistol in a 10-hour crime spree last week.

Police said the four used the pellet gun to commandeer a car in Aurora on Thursday. They are suspected in a similar crime in Geneva later the same day, and an investigation is pending in a West Chicago armed robbery, police said.

The girls, all from Aurora, were in custody late Monday in the Kane County Juvenile Justice Facility, police said.

Each teen was cited in juvenile petitions for possession of a stolen motor vehicle, vehicular hijacking, robbery and unlawful use of a weapon, Aurora police said.

Aurora police said two of the teens had been reported as missing juveniles at least a week before the incidents. A third had been arrested as a truant the week of the alleged crimes, police said.

Police said the spree began shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday in Aurora, when the four allegedly walked up to a man backing a car out of his driveway in the 200 block of Woodlawn Avenue. "They approached him and displayed the gun," said Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli.

The four allegedly went through the man's pockets, Ferrelli said, and took $8 before leaving with his Chevrolet Lumina.

West Chicago police said suspects allegedly used a pellet gun to rob the occupants of an apartment in the 300 block of Wilson Avenue at about 3:10 p.m. The Lumina was later found abandoned in the 500 block of Main Street, police said.

At 4:30 p.m., Geneva police said, the four approached a man sitting in a car at a gas station at 501 W. State St. One of the girls asked the man for a cigarette, according to a police report, and then the group allegedly got into a Chevrolet Celebrity.

One of the girls displayed the pellet gun, police said, and the four allegedly drove off in the car with the 38-year-old Geneva man inside.

According to the report, the girls drove the car to a nearby McDonald's and demanded money from the alleged victim. When the man told them he didn't have any, he was dropped off near Randall Road and the East-West Tollway, police said.

Police in Aurora said the girls' day came to an end at about 9:10 p.m. when they were spotted in the Celebrity in the 100 block of North State Street in Aurora and were arrested. All are to appear Nov. 16 in Kane County Juvenile Court, police said.

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