New Lenox Carjacking Was Avoidable: Police

NEW LENOX, IL - Late Tuesday afternoon, a 40-year-old New Lenox man found himself with a gun brushed up against the back of his head as he rode in the passenger seat of his girlfriend's 2014 Kia Optima, a car he was trying to sell. The man was told to empty his pockets. Then he got smacked in the head by the car door as he landed on pavement. The car got stolen. The carjackers sped away.

Fortunately, the man wasn't seriously hurt or killed. This week's New Lenox Township carjacking can serve as a warning to others, New Lenox Deputy Chief of Police Louis Alessandrini told New Lenox Patch on Thursday. This was a preventable crime.

After all, the village of New Lenox operates a 24-hour, camera monitored public parking lot. The site serves as a safe place for New Lenox-area residents to meet up with someone for any Internet-based sales of goods, Alessandrini explained. There is even a large sign so people know they're in the right spot. The parking lot spot is in the northeast corner of the New Lenox Police Department, which is located at 200 Veterans Parkway.

RELATED: New Lenox Victim Carjacked By Gunman

The Internet-exchange parking lot has existed at the New Lenox Police station for about a year, the deputy chief said. It's gaining popularity. New Lenox officers routinely see people using the lot to do Internet-based sales. Actually, you don't have to be a New Lenox resident to use it, Alessandrini noted. Someone from Joliet, Tinley Park, Orland Park or elsewhere can use the video-surveillance site as a safe meeting space to exchange goods with a stranger.

"We do recommend that people use it, if they're buying or selling things off Craigslist. It's a designated area at the police department," the deputy chief said. "We want everybody to be safe and secure and I think this is one way to do that."

After all, it's better to be safe than sorry.

"You never know who you're dealing with on the Internet," Alessandrini said. "The Internet Exchange (lot), it's under surveillance so it obviously promotes keeping strangers away from your house, out of seeing what's in your garage, or what you may have in and around your house. It's a great idea, and it's working well for us. We see it getting used."

Alessandrini said he could not immediately call any similar carjacking crimes around New Lenox like the one Tuesday afternoon. However, that crime happened in New Lenox Township so the Will County Sheriff's Department remains the lead agency investigating the crime. Three men were involved in the carjacking and sheriff's police believe the three took the stolen Kia Optima to the Hazel Crest area. Nobody has been arrested and the stolen car has not been located.

Preceding Tuesday's carjacking, the unsuspecting New Lenox man took a phone call from a woman claiming she wanted to buy the Kia he was advertising for sale on several websites. Ultimately, three con artists showed up at the man's house in a white late-model Dodge Challenger with blue stripes. Two guys, who looked to be around 20 years old, wore hooded sweatshirts. The victim told police he never got a good look at the third guy.

By 4:30 p.m., the New Lenox resident got tricked into letting one of the criminals get behind the wheel while another rode in the back seat. The unsuspecting victim sat in the passenger's seat of his girlfriend's car - before a gun was put against the base of his skull. At that time, he realized, he was the victim of a carjacking.

As for the third guy, he drove off in the getaway car that got them to New Lenox to pull off their crime.

Images via New Lenox Police Department