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200 N Columbus Dr

British visitor pistol-whipped at Lakeshore East hotel

Armed robbery may be related to River North incident the same day

Fairmont Chicago

(Above) Fairmont Chicago in northeast corner of Loop.

10-Jul-15 – A man from London, in Chicago on business, was robbed at gunpoint inside his hotel room last month. It was one of two armed robberies at downtown hotels that day, the other one happening in River North.

On June 7 at 11:08 p.m., the 48-year-old man went out for dinner and drinks with colleagues, and then returned to his room on the 25th floor of the Fairmont Chicago on North Columbus Drive. A half-hour later there was a knock on his door. When he opened it, a handgun was pointed at him. A black man, 30-35 years old, about 5’9”, weighing 230 pounds, with short black hair, entered the British man’s room and, say police, “forced him to kneel down against the hotel bed.”

The robber saw the man’s laptop computer and asked him for the password. When he refused, he was hit in the nose with the gun. He then told the robber the password.

The robber took the computer, worth about $2,500, an Apple iPod worth about $500, and $500 in cash from the man’s wallet, which was on a counter. He ripped the telephone from the wall and ran away.

The British man was given first aid by the Chicago Fire Department, and then taken by ambulance to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where his injury was described as minor.

Surveillance video shows the assailant entering the hotel not carrying anything but leaving with a computer bag.

Just hours earlier, at 8:40 p.m. on North State Street, an armed robbery with handgun was reported at Hotel Polomar Chicago. Police say that is “an ongoing criminal investigation” and have declined to release further information.