Bond Set At $500,000 For Accused Cricket Store Crooks

EVERGREEN PARK, IL -- Two Chicago men were nabbed shortly after they herded employees and customers at gunpoint into a back room as then robbed a mobile phone store in Evergreen Park, prosecutors said. Iking Canady, 25, and Devon Chew, 32, appeared before Judge John J. Mahoney on a Class X felony charge of armed robbery. Canady is currently on probation; Chew is on parole , according to court records.

Around 7 p.m. Nov. 14, the prosecutor said that Chew and Canady both entered the Cricket Wireless store at 2509 W. 95th St. in Evergreen Park. The men were wearing masks when Chew pulled out a Ruger handgun and told the employees and customers to turn around and go to the back of the store, the prosecutor said.

Canady is said to have opened the cash register, while Chew was purportedly sticking a gun in an employee’s face while making her open a safe. There, Chew allegedly grabbed $100. The prosecutor said that Chew told Canady there was more money in the store, and to go the break room, Canady stole an employee’s wallet from her purse.

There was a smaller safe inside the larger safe. The two men waited for the ten-minute safety feature to open the safe, where they found store merchandise and a second wallet, the prosecutor said. Chew and Canady allegedly stuffed the phones and cash into backpacks they had brought with them.

While the men were in the store, a security company was monitoring the store’s surveillance cameras from out of the state. An employee there saw the alleged robbery unfolding and called Evergreen Park police.

Canady and Chew were leaving through the back door of the business when Evergreen Park police arrived. The men fled and after a brief foot chase were captured nearby. Police found Chew hiding in a backyard on Maplewood, as well as the gun used in the robbery, the prosecutor said. Chew was reportedly found at the White Castle near 95th Street and Western Avenue.

Employees and customers from the Cricket store were able to identify Chew by his red hooded sweatshirt and Canady by his maroon pants, the prosecutor said. Officers also found phones, wallets and $334 that had been taken during the alleged robbery in their backpacks.

Chew is currently on parole for a 2007 vehicular hijacking of a senior citizen, where he had been serving three concurrent 10-year sentences in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Canady was sentenced to two years’ probation earlier this year for unlawful possession of a credit card in Orland Park. He is being held without bond for probation violation. Both convicted felons were flagged for the possibility of violence in a pretrial public safety assessment.

“It’s shockingly violent,” Mahoney said. “Pointing guns at people and ordering them around, I fear for the public.”

Bail for both men was set at $500,000. Canady and Chew are due back in court Dec. 14 in Bridgeview.