Police warn of two similar armed robberies at North Side stores

(Chicago) Police are warning of two similar recent armed robberies of small retail stores on the North Side that happened just two days apart.

During both robberies, a suspect entered the store, walked up to the counter and engaged the clerk in a conversation, according to the community alert from Area North detectives.

He then lifted his shirt or jacket, displayed a handgun, and demanded money from the cash register, police said. During one of the robberies, the suspect stole the entire register.

The robberies happened at 6:55 p.m. Dec. 7 in the 1000 block of West Granville and again two days later, at 6:53 p.m. on Dec. 7 in the 1900 block of West Peterson.

The suspect in the Granville robbery is described as a 35-40 year old black man, between 5-foot-11 and 6-foot-2, 200 and 240 pounds, with short black hair and a medium complexion. He was wearing a black Kangol cap, black waist-length jacket, blue jeans and black gloves.

The suspect in the Peterson robbery is described as a 30-35 year old black man, about 6-foot, 180 pounds with black hair and a medium complexion. He was wearing a gray hooded two-tone jacket with a large horizontal black stripe across the front, black gloves, dark jeans and dark shoes.

Anyone with information about the robberies is asked to call detectives at (312) 744-8263.