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.
That detail fits a troubling pattern in Chicago. ATF data cited by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office showed a fifteenfold increase in machine-gun conversion-device recoveries in the City of Chicago since 2019. The office announced it would seek imprisonment when the evidence sufficiently proves that a qualifying modified firearm was possessed or used during a felony, and would not reduce charges or accept lesser pleas in those circumstances.
Armed Robbery Carries Mandatory Prison Time
Armed robbery itself is a Class X felony under Illinois Criminal Code 720 ILCS 5/18-2, carrying a mandatory, non-probationable sentence of 6 to 30 years in state prison. An additional 15-year statutory enhancement applies when a firearm was possessed during the crime, pushing the baseline sentencing range to 21 to 45 years, according to the Illinois Courts.
The Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act changed pretrial procedures, according to the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
Panic Spread Fast on Social Media
The robbery rattled the community enough that, the day after the heist, New Lenox police had to issue a public statement dispelling rumors circulating on social media about a second armed robbery at a local Burger King. Police clarified they were actually responding to a delayed road-rage report in which no weapons were displayed, illustrating how quickly anxiety spread through town in the robbery's aftermath.
Flock Cameras Under Scrutiny Even as They Crack the Case
The same Flock Safety license plate reader technology that helped police track the suspects across three municipalities is also at the center of an active local political fight. The Will County Board has been debating an ordinance that would increase county oversight and restrict municipal license plate reader camera usage on county roads, driven by public privacy concerns raised by board members.
The New Lenox case echoes a similar retail robbery playbook seen elsewhere in the Chicago suburbs. In March, a DuPage County judge sentenced a man to 30 years in prison for an armed robbery of a Lisle Verizon store in which two masked, armed men stole about 60 cellphones and other electronics, then left in the employee's vehicle; the suspects were later found after a brief foot chase, as Hoodline reported in its piece on the 30-year prison sentence handed down in that case. Whether the Will County State's Attorney's Office will pursue additional weapons charges tied to the converted automatic firearm, or whether the three suspects still held in Chicago will face formal charges, remains to be seen as the investigation continues.
