Waukegan men accused of robbing landscaping crew in Lake Forest

A cellphone might have been mistaken for a gun when two men robbed a landscaping crew of a leaf blower Thursday in Lake Forest, police said.

Police received a call of an armed robbery at 1:20 p.m. on the 400 block of Linden Avenue, where landscape workers said they were approached by several men who showed a black gun before taking the leaf blower and leaving in a brown Honda, police said in a news release.

Police located the brown Honda a short time later on Deerpath by Walnut and took the driver into custody immediately. The passenger fled east toward the train tracks, police said.

Metra trains were stopped for about 35 minutes while the Lake County sheriff's K-9 unit searched the tracks and bike area. A Lake Bluff officer found the second suspect on Green Bay Road near Route 176.

No gun was recovered, and both suspects denied a gun being involved, police said. Witnesses and the suspects both agreed that a cellphone could have been mistaken for a gun, police said.

Woodlands Academy, near the original crime scene, was placed on lockdown while officials searched South Park. School resumed to normal within an hour.

Ignacio Alvarez, 31, and Juan U. Nieto, 31, both of Waukegan, were charged with felony theft.