Crime & Safety

Police: Flossmoor Woman's Report of $100K Jewelry Robbery 'Unfounded'

A Flossmoor woman told Chicago Police that several men robbed her of $100,000 worth of jewelry on Wednesday, May 15 in the 700 block of Michigan Avenue. While investigating the report, police discovered that the robbery was fabricated.

Chicago police are saying a 68-year-old Flossmoor woman lied about a group of men robbing her of $100,000 in jewelry Wednesay on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, WGN News reports.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, told police that eight suspects accosted her and told her, "Take off the jewelry, or we'll take it off for you."

She told police she didn't scream for help during the robbery because she was afraid the men might harm her, according to reports.

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Police checked all the surveillance footage from the area, but were unable to find any evidence of the robbery on the footage.

“Chicago Police have determined that the reported Michigan Ave robbery of a 68-year-old woman Wednesday is unfounded," according to a statement from police. "Detectives confronted the victim with inconsistencies between her account of the incident and recovered video, and learned that the story was not true.”

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Initally, the woman filed a police report saying the robbers made off with a diamond brooch worth about $100,000, a tennis bracelet valued at about $25,000, gold earrings worth about $10,000 and a purse with about $2,500 in cash, reports the Chicago Tribune

"They just surrounded me ... about 8 guys, between 18 and 20 years of age. It was like they came out of nowhere ... All that was going through my head was something my Dad told me when I was young: 'If someone comes up to you and wants something, give it to them,'" she told the Tribune.

Police were able to find the woman exiting a Metra train via video footage the day of the robbery, but the footage does not show the woman wearing any of the reportedly stolen jewelry. No witnesses along Michigan Avenue were found to confirm the woman's story, according to police. 

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