The 82-year-old owner of a Skokie company that specializes in headstones was bound with tape inside his Gross Point Road business Friday afternoon by armed robbers who took his keys and ransacked his nearby home, police said.
Skokie police said three men armed with cutting instruments entered the business, Troost Memorials, shortly before noon on Sept. 9 and proceeded to restrain the owner and his 56-year-old female secretary using tape. The assailants then took the keys to the business owner’s home, located in the 9800 block of Keeler Avenue, and subsequently left the man and his employee bound inside the business, police said. According to police, the robbers ransacked the man’s home, but it is unknown what if anything was taken from the residence.
Neither the man nor his employee were harmed during the incident, and both were able to free themselves from their restraints and flee to a neighboring business to call police, authorities said.
Police said the assailants had already fled the area by the time police responded. The men are described as wearing baseball hats and sunglasses. Skokie police say there are currently no suspects identified in the case.
Any witnesses or anyone with any information about the incident are encouraged to contact Skokie police at 847-982-5900, on their crime tip hotline number at 847-933-8477, or via text by visiting: http://www.skokie.org/text-a-tip.cfm
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.Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.