Robber with fake gun foiled by clerk with real one

CHICAGO -- Police say a robber tried to hold up an electronics store in West Rogers Park with a fake gun, but was foiled when the clerk pulled a real gun from a safe and opened fire.

It happened around 5:30 p.m. Monday when a 25-year-old man walked through the front door of the electronics shop in the 2900 block of West Devon Avenue and aimed the gun at the clerk and demanded money, police said. The reached reached into the safe and pulled out a real gun and fired twice, stopping only because the gun jammed, police said.

The robber grabbed the clerk's gun and pistol-whipped him in the face and head, then ran out the store and jumped into a blue PT cruiser driven by a woman, police said.

The clerk stumbled out of the store and a worker next store came to his aid, according to the police report. The 23-year-old clerk was taken to Saint Francis Hospital, where he was treated for small lacerations on the left side of his face and on the top of his head, according to fire officials.

Police caught up with the suspect when he walked into Franciscan St. Margaret Health Hospital in Hammond, Ind., with gunshot wounds, authorities said. The suspect was taken into custody and brought back to Chicago.

The clerk's gun was recovered in the 5300 block of South Morgan Street after the suspect “implicated himself,’’ according to a police report. He had left the fake gun in the store, police said.

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