Hyde Park Businesses Weary After String Of Robberies

By Anna Deem in News on Jan 30, 2011 6:45PM

Small businesses are wary after a string of robberies this month that took place in the area bordered by 47th and 55th streets and Drexel and Dorchester. "I look up. Next thing I know, I have a gun in my face. I just went numb," Art Chotipradit, a clerk at Windy's Deli, 1013 E. 53rd St., told the Chicago Sun-Times. Chotipradit, 39, said that he gave the gunman $200 to $300 from the cash register before the man and another assailant left his shop.

Despite the robberies, local businesses can't operate in fear, Chotipradit told the Sun-Times. "We have to keep making money," he said. Robert Hunter, a barber at nearby Brown's Barber Shop, agreed with Chotipradit. "I'm not scared, it's that Marine training," Hunter said to the Sun-Times. "I guess military men don't get scared." Anyone with information about the robberies is asked to call police at (312) 747-8382.