Police Allege 2 Men as Brains Behind Robbery Ring

By Nick Swedberg

Two south suburban men suspected of being the ring leaders behind a string of Chicago-area robberies were picked up Woodridge police over the weekend.

Eric “Big E” Rogers, 39, of the 16700 block of Artesian Avenue, Hazel Crest, and Eric “Little E” Curtis, 29, of the 200 block of Berry Street, Park Forest, were charged with Hobbs Act Robbery stemming from an incident where $54,000 worth of cell phone and tablet computers were stolen from a Norridge AT&T store in March, according to the FBI.

Authorities also alleged that a third man and Rogers' cousin, Ryan Rogers, 27, who was shot dead by Chicago police in East Hazel Crest in March, also was a leader of the robbery ring. According to Chicago police, Ryan Rogers was tracked to his home in East Hazel Crest and drove toward an officer before being shot and killed by a Chicago cop.

Woodridge Police Department officers arrested the two men on Dec. 14 without incident, according to the FBI. They were turned over to federal authorities and appeared before a U.S. judge on Sunday.

Police caught Curtis and Rogers in the parking lot the T-Mobile store, located at 1001 75th St. in Woodridge, following reports of a robbery inside the business, according to authorities. Two other men who carried out the actual robbery are still being sought by police. According to the criminal complaint, both Rogers and Curtis ran a crew who committed similar Chicago area robberies dating back to January.

Curtis recruited people to carry out robberies on March 19 in Norridge, in February 2013 near St. Louis and in April 2013 in Deerfield, according to the FBI. He's also accused of providing the firearm used in the Deerfield and Norridge robberies. Eric Rogers, before he was killed in March, allegedly provided instructions on how to use a gun used by someone recruited for a cell phone store robbery in Addison in January and another one in La Porte, IN, in February.

During the Norridge robbery, two people who committed the robbery met with five other people, including Eric Rogers and Curtis, at the apartment of Ryan Rogers in East Hazel Crest, according to the FBI, From there, the group traveled in two cars to the AT&T store located at 4155 North Harlem Avenue in Norridge. The robbers ordered employees and customers into the back room before demanding one of the employees to open a locked room. They then filled up bags with cell phones and fled out the back door.

In a similar incident on Jan. 21, two men entered an Addison Sprint store, one who was armed with a handgun, and force people to the floor or a confined area of the store, according to the FBI. One of the robbers then ordered an employee to open a locked room or cabinet before grabbing cell phones and computers.