By Rosemary Sobol
Chicago Tribune
HOMEWOOD, Ill. — Two men got away with more than $1 million Tuesday morning from a Brink’s truck parked outside a Homewood grocery store, authorities said.
What they didn’t know was a location tracking device was inside bundles of cash, which led police right to them, federal authorities said.
Devonte Davis and Darrell Singleton, who were both charged with armed robbery, appeared before a magistrate judge in federal court Wednesday, where they were held pending detention hearings next week, federal authorities said.
The armed robbery happened on the 3100 block of West 183rd Street in Homewood about 9:25 a.m. Tuesday, authorities said. The two suspects allegedly attacked a guard and lugged several containers filled with about $1.1 million from the armored truck, according to the federal complaint.
One of the plastic bins they took had an Apple AirTag location tracking device capable of “live transmitting” its location and about an hour later police tracked them to the 12400 block of South Justine Street in Calumet Park, authorities said. Officers found “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the tracking device, two guns, several Brink’s items, including a deposit slip, and clothing matching the description of what the suspects were wearing, according to the complaint.
Two Brink’s guards were in the parking lot of a Jewel-Osco store for a pickup. They entered the store, and then while one guard used the washroom, the other guard returned to the truck. That’s when Singleton, described as wearing all black and being thin and about 5-foot-6, allegedly approached the guard from behind, pointed a green and silver gun at him and told him not to move, the complaint said.
Davis, who is about 6-foot-2 and was wearing light clothing, also was armed, authorities said. He joined Singleton and they forced the guard into the truck, took the Brink’s bins and sped away in a Nissan Maxima with 10 deposit bags, each with $50,000, and seven bins, each containing about $100,000, the complaint said.
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At the time of the robbery, some of which was captured by surveillance cameras, a witness in the parking lot called 911 to report a suspicious gray Nissan with tinted windows behind the armored truck, the complaint said.
As police got wind of the robbery, they reviewed speed cameras in search of the gray car, and found a gray Nissan Maxima speeding away with a license plate from a 2018 Hyundai reported stolen on April 28, the complaint said. That’s when the pair drove to the 9500 block of South Indiana Avenue where they parked the Maxima and moved the stolen money into Davis’ black Jeep, according to the complaint.
Davis got into the Jeep and Singleton followed in the Maxima, authorities said. At some point, they ditched the Maxima and both jumped into the Jeep, which went to the Calumet Park address, authorities said. Police arrived shortly afterward and cameras captured people matching their descriptions going in and out of the house holding objects, authorities said. The suspects realized police were outside and began hiding cash, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, after police obtained a search warrant around 3:30 p.m., Davis walked out of the home with two other people, while Singleton — who later admitted that he and Davis robbed the truck, was found a few minutes later hiding in an attic.
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