Cops find hijacked cigarette truck but not smokes

Authorities have recovered the Eby-Brown truck that was hijacked in Downers Grove, but the trailer nearly full of cigarettes is still missing.

Downers Grove Deputy Police Chief Jim Black said the truck was recovered Monday sans trailer in northwestern Chicago near Avondale and Newark avenues in the city's Norwood Park neighborhood. The trailer was about 90 percent full of its cargo when it was hijacked earlier in the day at a gas station while the driver was making a delivery, Black said. He was unaware of the value of the trailer's load.

"We're still waiting for an inventory of that," he said.

The driver of the truck, who was taken along with his vehicle by the hijacker, was released about 3 a.m. Tuesday along Interstate 55 in Joliet after being beaten on the head, Black said.

The driver was identified as a 24-year-old Chicago man who was treated and released at a Joliet hospital and is now being interviewed by police.

Black said he was unsure about the driver's ability to provide a detailed description of his assailant. He said the driver's "recollection of things that occurred was kind of foggy." Currently, the only description of the hijacker is a male with short, brown hair.

Eby-Brown is a cigarette and candy distributor based in Naperville.