Elgin-area man arrested on charges of carjacking, robbery
An Elgin-area man is facing charges of aggravated vehicular hijacking and robbery alleging he swiped a minivan in Northbrook and caused a multivehicle crash on the Edens Expressway.
John Landem, 42, of unincorporated Elgin Township, is at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge where he is recovering from injuries he sustained in the crash on the Edens.
According to a news release from Northbrook police, a Lake Forest woman phoned police Saturday and reported she and her three children were getting into their minivan at a shopping center in the 3100 block of Dundee Road when a man later identified as Landem approached, demanded her keys and robbed her of $45.
As he tried to steal the minivan, the release says, the woman told Landem her children were in the vehicle. Landam let her remove the kids — 6 and younger — before he stole it.
Neither the woman nor the children were harmed, police said.
The woman called 911 and Northbrook police were tipped off that the man was driving south on the Edens Expressway. They pursued, and he crashed into four other vehicles, officials said.
He was taken into custody by Skokie police as he was attempting to hijack another vehicle, the news release states.