After being robbed at gunpoint last night around 11 p.m., a Forest Park man used the GPS function on his Motorola Atrix 4G to find his phone on the front lawn of a residence a block away from his apartment, he told police.
The victim told police he was walking home from the Harlem Avenue Green Line station when two men who were following him stopped him near Franklin Street and Circle Avenue. One of the offenders reportedly held a small semi-automatic handgun with white grips to the victim’s head, saying, “Gimme everything you got.”
The victim said he surrendered his black and gray backpack with the logo “Ful” on the front. Inside was the cellphone, a Phillips MP3 player, a sketch pad and his wallet, which contained two credit cards and his ID.
Forest Park Deputy Police Chief Tom Aftanas said police are checking videos from the Green Line CTA and may be able to view video footage from a local business near where the incident occurred.
The cellphone was recovered in the 7400 block of Franklin Street. Aftanas said GPS accuracy varies between cellphones.
“With the GPS you can get a basic idea where a phone is. [GPS] doesn’t give you an exact location. The distance can vary.”
Aftanas said cellphone pinging technology helped police search for the offender in the recent 7-Eleven shooting April 28, although during the police search the phone pinged in various locations in south Forest Park.
The phone must be turned on for GPS to work, said Aftanas.
