Homeless couple charged with mugging women at Waukegan grocery store

A homeless couple have been charged in two robberies of customers at a Waukegan grocery store, including one that sent a woman in her 80s to the hospital for a head injury and facial cuts, authorities said Thursday.

Waukegan police say they're proud of the investigative work that led them to Joseph Ribaudo, 37, and Jaclyn Marquardt, 28, who were arrested Wednesday with the help of the warrants division of the Lake County sheriff's office and the U.S. Marshal Service's Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Marquardt has been charged with burglary, two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of robbery in crimes reported Jan. 1 and April 30 at the Jewel grocery store on the 3100 block of North Lewis Avenue, police said.

She also has been charged with possession of a controlled substance and with being a fugitive from justice on drug charges in Wisconsin, Waukegan police Cmdr. Joe Florip said

Ribaudo has been charged with burglary, two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of robbery, police said.

The investigation began New Year's Day, when a woman in her late 70s reported being slammed against her car and robbed of her purse when she was shopping at Jewel, police said. The woman, who suffered minor injuries but was not taken to the hospital, described the robber as a white woman.

Nearly four months later, on April 30, the investigation heated up when a woman in her 80s was knocked to the ground and had her purse stolen while she was inside shopping at the same Jewel. The woman said she was "forcefully" knocked down by a white man. Her injuries were severe enough that on Thursday, four days after she was robbed, she remained in intensive care at a Waukegan-area hospital, police said.

Using surveillance video and witness interviews, investigators determined the same getaway vehicle was used in both robberies, which helped them charge both Marquardt and Ribaudo in both cases, Florio said.

In the Jan. 1 case, Florip said, Marquardt pinned the victim to her car and stole her purse, while Ribaudo drove the pair away. On April 30, he said, they reversed roles; Ribaudo knocked down the victim inside the store and took her purse, then left the business and got into the car driven by Marquardt.

Both Marquardt and Ribaudo are in custody in Lake County jail. Ribaudo is being held on $30,000 bail, but a judge did not allow bail for Marquardt. They are due to appear in court May 22.