Three men confronted an employee opening the Verizon store at 511 E. Lincoln Highway in New Lenox before 10:30 a.m. Saturday, with two of them displaying guns and demanding cell phones while a driver waited outside in a getaway vehicle. By the time investigators were done, police had recovered 74 stolen phones, two stolen vehicles, five firearms — including one altered to fire fully automatically — and five suspects were in custody.
According to a report from Patch, the robbery unfolded right as the store opened for the day. New Lenox police said the investigation led them to track the fleeing suspect vehicle eastbound using Flock Safety license plate reader cameras, broadcasting the alert over the Illinois State Police Radio Network. That tip allowed Harvey police to spot the getaway car before Chicago Police SWAT helped raid a location in Chicago, where suspects were found. Police took five suspects into custody.
Suspects Identified, One Held on Outstanding Warrant
The primary suspect, 21-year-old Dreyone Dyer of Chicago, was charged with armed robbery by the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office, according to the same Patch report. A second man, 27-year-old Niquan Candler of Aurora, was arrested and has an active warrant out of Livingston County on an unspecified basis; police said he was transferred to the Will County Adult Detention Facility specifically to await extradition there.
Dyer and Candler are both being held at the Will County jail, and police said the other three suspects arrested in Chicago have not yet been charged. The investigation remains ongoing, per police.
Recovered Weapon Raises Stakes Under Illinois Law
Among the five firearms recovered, one had been altered to function as a fully automatic weapon, police said. Illinois law prohibits possessing a machine gun under statute 720 ILCS 5/24-1, according to FindLaw…