Two teens who robbed a gas station at gunpoint early Sunday, only making off with candy, were arrested minutes later after police followed their footprints, prosecutors said Monday.
Ricardo Moreno, 19, and Xavier Romero, 15, are charged with armed robbery in the holdup of a Citgo gas station, 2706 W. 51 st St., about 6:45 a.m. on Sunday, Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Jeanne Kolasa said in a bond hearing Monday. Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered Moreno and Romero each held in leiu of $300,000 bail.
The two went into the Citgo, with Moreno holding the door open and acting as a lookout while the boy went into the store, prosecutors said. A 22-year-old clerk was inside a bulletproof enclosure, and Moreno kept the door open so the clerk couldn't use a remote mechanism to lock the door from inside the enclosure.
Romero waved at the clerk and told him to come out of the enclosure to the chip aisle, prosecutors said. The clerk came out, but stood near the door to tell Moreno to close the outside door. But when the clerk came out, Romero took out a .357 revolver from his pocket and pointed it at the clerk, who ran back into the enclosure and crouched under the counter and called police.
Romero threatened the clerk by putting the gun in the money slot at the counter, but he then grabbed candy and they ran away, prosecutors said.
The two went to Moreno's apartment, where they hid the gun, prosecutors said.
Officers who responded to the clerk's 911 call followed followed fresh footprints in the snow to Moreno's apartment in the 5000 block of South Talman Avenue, about a block from the gas station, prosecutors said. Police arrested both Moreno and Romero at Moreno's apartment and also found a .357 Taurus revolver with a defaced serial number, loaded with four live rounds. The clerk identified them as the robbers.
The two both told witnesses they had robbed the gas station and also admitted it in statements to police. The incident was captured on surveillance video.
Romero, of the 4000 block of West 24th Place, also is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possessing a defaced firearm.
Moreno is on parole in a prior drug case and on probation in a 2012 robbery case. Romero is on juvenile probation for a 2014 attempted robbery and has a robbery case pending in juvenile court, prosecutors said.
Tribune reporter Steve Schmadeke contributed