I would, too. My rush to get an MOP-related headline up yesterday — and my reflexive “Antoine Walker never passes” jokery — on the Antoine Walker-got-robbed story is kind of bumming me out now, as more details emerge about Walker’s home invasion robbery. It’s not something I feel very good making light of. Basically, a bunch of ski-masked dudes got on some Body Count shit, tied Walker up, and stole everything they could. It sounds about as unpleasant as you’d imagine. The Chicago Tribune brings the details:
Walker, who resides in the 400 block of W. Huron, fell victim to a terrifying gunpoint robbery in his $4.1 million residence Monday. A source close to the Walker family said the former Mt. Carmel High School basketball star, a 6-foot-9-inch forward for the Miami Heat, was tied up with duct tape by masked intruders and robbed of jewelry, cash and his black Mercedes.Chicago police recovered the Mercedes”minus its wheels”on Tuesday but declined to confirm other details of the investigation.
The source told the Tribune on Tuesday that two intruders wearing masks and covering their eyes entered through the garage at Walker’s home Monday evening. One held a weapon, likely a small handgun, to Walker’s head.
“He acted as if he knew Antoine and was talking to him about knowing the consequences of the robbery,” the source said.
The intruders ordered Walker into his house, where they wrapped duct tape around his ankles and wrists. Walker was able to extricate himself from the tape after the robbery.
…According to the source, Walker is packing his belongings from his residence on Huron after Monday’s frightening experience. “He’s gone, baby,” the source said.
This is obviously jarring and sad for obvious reasons, but also so to me because Walker’s loyalty to his home city just seems out of step, in a good way, with the way many pro athletes live. He was not in a McMansion in the distant ‘burbs (well, he was in a McMansion in a glitzy neighborhood like River North, which for all I know is as suburban-seeming as Brooklyn Heights), not in a tax-shelter mega-home in Florida in a neighborhood populated entirely by other pro athletes and hedge fund managers, but in an actual city. And, it sounds like, actually in that city:
…Neighbors said groups of people often gathered at Walker’s stately home, sometimes spilling onto the porch in back that overlooks the alley behind the house.
“They’re always hanging out there, it’s like a frat house,” said Jack Taylor, who lives nearby. “We thought for sure one of the neighbors called the police.”
The neighborhood is flush with newly constructed mansions, some vacant. Security cameras sit on several corners.
Walker has been known to walk around the River North area and greet fans and neighbors. “He is a nice guy and approachable and he supports Chicago, even though he plays on a different team. I think that’s great,” (a neighbor) said. “He is very friendly and says, ‘Hi, how are you doing?'””
Rest easy, Chicagoans: Marcus Liberty is never leaving the ‘hood.
River North is Dumbo if it bordered East New York and had more places to eat. It’s wedged between the North Branch of the Chicago River and what’s left of the Cabrini-Green projects – which are now mostly deconstructed. The resulting mixture of scattered public housing remains, unoccupied new constructions, and open concrete’d lots is downright creepy. Befitting of a place that was once called Little Hell. Anyway, if my own recent experience as a burglary victim in Chicago – under far less frightening circumstances albeit – is any indication, I’m sure Mr. Walker is getting the best treatment he can from Chicago’s chatty, easily distractable, mildly condescending robbery police.
I agree with Pete’s tourism board entry, but he missed blasting the Brehon Pub’s chicken caesar salad. The police department should dedicate a Wire-esque unit to disappointing lunches.
you’ll be happy to know that the ever vigilant chicago police have their priorities in order, i just witnessed not one, not two, but three squad cars roll up on a landscaper who was cutting grass in the ukie village. the landscaper seemed kind of puzzled that it took 6 of the cpd’s finest to tell him that the tail gate of his truck was blocking the alley.