A Chicago news crew was robbed at gunpoint this week while reporting on a recent spate of robberies in the Windy City.
Shortly before 5 a.m. on Monday, Spanish-language station Univision Chicago said a reporter and photographer were robbed at gunpoint. The thieves, who have not been apprehended, made off with their camera and personal belongings.
"They were approached with guns and robbed. Mainly it was personal items, and they took a camera," Luis Godinez, vice president of news at Univision Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune.
The story they were filming never got a chance to air since the camera the footage was recorded on was stolen, according to CBS.
The reporter and cameraman were outside when three men came up in a gray sedan and black SUV. They fled the scene after robbing the news crew. No one was harmed in the incident.
"They're OK, and we're working on it together as a team," Godinez said.
The incident marks the second time this month a Chicago news crew has been robbed.
[A] WLS-TV photographer was assaulted and robbed on Aug. 8 while preparing to cover a weekday afternoon news conference on Chicago's West Side, the station reported.
The robberies prompted the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 41, which represents TV photographers in Chicago, to warn about the growing safety threats to those who cover the news.
"Our news photographers and reporters provide a very important public service in keeping our community informed. We are committed to making sure that their safety comes first," Raza Siddiqui, president of the union local, said in a statement.
Siddiqui told the Chicago Sun-Times that some of the news stations affiliated with the union planned to take additional safety steps, including assigning security to some TV crews.
He said the union is arranging a safety meeting for members to "voice some of their concerns that they may have from the streets" and to determine what the union can do to provide support for its members. (CBS)
Similar incidents have occurred in other crime-ridden Democrat cities. In March, a CNN reporter and her colleague were in San Francisco to report on “voter discontent bc of rampant street crime.” When they came out from their interview at city hall they found their rental car had been broken into in a matter of seconds, despite hiring private security.