Morton Grove police intercepted two stolen Mercedes vehicles Monday, which set off a chain of events in which one vehicle crashed and the other was abandoned, requiring police to set up a perimeter in a normally quiet neighborhood to find suspects who had fled on foot.
Morton Grove’s automated license plate reader system alerted police at about 6:14 p.m. that two Mercedes sedans stolen in carjackings in Aurora were present in the northern suburb. Morton Grove police spotted the vehicles on the 6300 block of Dempster Street, they said in a news release.
Drivers of both vehicles fled the scene, and one vehicle was found near Georgiana Avenue and Smithwood Drive, just south of Dempster Street and north of St. Martha’s Church. Two subjects fled on foot.
Assisting police from the Niles, Skokie and Northbrook departments and the Cook County Sheriff’s Police established a perimeter and used a drone and K9 to find the two men who had left the vehicle. They recovered a firearm from the scene.
Morton Grove police located the second carjacked Mercedes in the 8600 block of Austin and initiated a traffic stop. The driver of the vehicle evaded the traffic stop and caused what police called a “significant” crash at the intersection of Lincoln and Austin Avenues. Several persons tried to flee that Mercedes but police arrested them.
Morton Grove police said two people remain in custody, and the department is investigating the incident. They are asking anyone with any information regarding it to call them at 847-470- 5200.
