Cops: Robbery victim became the robber

Police say a Carpentersville man who was held up in a drug deal tried to get his money back by committing an armed robbery of his own.

Jason A. Zumbek, 24, was arrested late Wednesday after robbing at knifepoint the man who had arranged the "set-up," Carpentersville Police Cmdr. Tim Bosshart said. Zumbek is charged with armed robbery, aggravated robbery, aggravated unlawful restraint and unlawful restraint.

According to police, Zumbek was robbed at gunpoint of $275 in marijuana about midnight Wednesday in a vehicle near Hillside Street and Lincoln Avenue. The robber and another man then sped off, Bosshart said, leaving Zumbek and a fourth man, who left the vehicle during the commotion, on the side of the road.

Zumbek then pulled out a knife and demanded the man give him $275 because he had arranged the drug deal, police said. When the man said he didn't have the money, Zumbek ordered the man to take him to the house of the driver who robbed him. But no one was home, Bosshart said, so Zumbek stole the other man's wallet and cell phone.

Zumbek, of 102 Golfview Lane, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge. He was being held in the county jail Thursday in lieu of a $5,000 bond, pending an Oct. 31 court appearance.

Bosshart said charges in the earlier robbery are unlikely unless Zumbek starts cooperating with investigators.

"Right now, the victim is not cooperative, partly because he's the offender in the second armed robbery," he said. "He's insistent there was no drug deal."