In a rather bizarre sequence of events, armed robbers managed to rob a TV news crew in the US who were covering a story about an armed robber at the time.
The news crew from the network Univision were robbed in Wicker Park, Chicago early on Monday (28 August) morning, in what is the latest in a surge of attacks in the Chicagoan neighbourhood.
At around 4:30am yesterday, a news reporter and a photojournalist were preparing for a live shot on the 1200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue.
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According to a police spokesperson and the reporter, a black SUV and a grey sedan pulled up next to them.
Men who were 'wearing ski masks and displaying firearms' then got out of their vehicles and took numerous belongings from the news crew before fleeing, according to police.
Univision Chicago vice president of news Luis Godinez confirmed that the two employees robbed were safe and uninjured.
No arrests have been made, with Area 5 detectives investigating the incident.
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The reporter who was robbed has been speaking anonymously to Block Club, saying it is 'total irony' the news team were covering an armed robber when they came across one themselves.
"As a journalist, you never want to be the story, right? You’re reporting on the story but you never think that you can become the story. That’s not why we do this," he told the outlet.
"So I guess it’s another reminder of how important it is to keep doing these stories and to keep pressure on our local authorities to try to prevent more events like that."
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The reporter went on to say the only thing of value that was stolen was the crew's video camera, so it certainly could have been a lot worse.
He added that himself and the photographer were shaken-up by the attack, but the pair are doing alright.
The Univision reporter said that the robbery should act as a stark reminder to the people of Chicago to remain vigilant.
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He told Block Club: "This could happen to anybody. So it’s an eye opener, for anyone that works in news that this could happen. It happened to me early in the morning, but I think it could literally happen any time of day."
The robbery coincides with a heavy increase in robberies in Chicago's 1st Ward, which includes parts of Wicker Park, West Town and Logan Square.
2023 has seen at least 164 robberies so far, that’s up from 126 during the whole of 2022.
Callum Jones