Good luck quickly changed to bad luck for a Chicago man yesterday. Anyone who has ever gambled at a casino knows the odds of winning $10,000 are not good. This man won the jackpot and then lost it in less time than it probably took to win it.
A 62-year-old Chicago man was robbed of more than $10,000 he had won at a casino less than a half hour earlier.
The victim, an immigrant who speaks little English and lives in low-income housing in Chicago’s Chinatown, was returning from a trip to the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind., just after 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning when the robbery happened, according to his son, William Chan.
“He parks his car in the parking lot. He’s 20 steps from the front door. He gets out of his car, and all of sudden, someone comes rushing out and wraps his arms around his neck,” Chan told msnbc.com. “Then a second guy come up with a gun.”
As he walked to the front door of his Chinatown apartment, the victim said he saw two young men running toward him. The victim wasn’t able to get inside fast enough and was attacked by the two men.
The men who robbed him told him not to move and demanded all of his money, Chan said. They also robbed him of the chips he had won.
Chan said the robbers struck his father in the forehead and then fled. “He’s okay; the cut wasn’t so deep, but there was a small laceration above his forehead,” he said, adding that his father didn’t need any stitches. Paramedics treated the cut on the scene.
It’s not clear why Chan’s father was targeted, but his son doesn’t think it was random.
“There are only two conclusions, one which I think is a higher possibility,” he said. “He was most likely followed from the casino back to his apartment building. The second possibility is it was a random robbery, which I think is least likely.” He added that many Chinese immigrants who visit area casinos, like his father, have long been targets of thieves who prey on them on their return.
My first thought was this was not random. I think his son’s theory that his father was followed from the casino is a good one. Maybe the casino can view their security cameras and get some leads on who may have followed Mr. Chan.
The son said, “There are building surveillance cameras, but when we spoke with detectives and the building manager, they said the surveillance cameras didn’t work. I find it hard to believe that there’s a low-income housing building with surveillance cameras that don’t work.”
The robbers haven’t been caught. Chan said the money doesn’t matter, but he’s worried about his father’s safety.
Chan said his father, who speaks little English, was sleeping this morning, trying to recover from his ordeal. Father and son are scheduled to meet with detectives later today.
Read more@ msnbc
Also, read story@ chicagotribune
