Rapid deployment parking lot security camera trailers at Mariano’s in Arlington Heights and other locations have been set up to detect, deter and defend carjackings, retail theft and other crimes. YouTube Tips ⓘ
Mariano’s and Kroger stores have started to deploy mobile surveillance cameras in their parking lots nationwide, and a few appeared this week in Chicagoland. The Arlington Heights Mariano’s store and Chicago Mariano’s in the Bucktown neighborhood have deployed the portable, solar-powered trailers with a 20-foot tower for the multiple surveillance cameras. The trailers are branded as Patrol Cams, which uses LiveView Technologies system.
The deployment is timely with the increase in carjacking incidents in Chicago, and a carjacking at the Mariano’s at the corner of Ashland Avenue and Webster Avenue in Bucktown last Saturday.
Chicago police received a report that about 7:00 p.m. Saturday, February 13, 2021, three carjackers walked up to a man while he loaded groceries into his vehicle at the parking lot at Mariano’s, 2112 North Ashland Avenue in Chicago.
All three carjackers at the Mariano’s lot displayed handguns and took the man’s silver 2018 Audi Q5. Two of the offenders fled in the victim’s Audi while the third offender got into a red Jeep Cherokee and fled from the scene.
The crime occurred about 90 minutes after a previous carjacking attempt at the Best Buy at 2140 North Elston Avenue, about a block away. An apparent lone offender pointed a gun at a female victim about 4:38 p.m., but the 61 year-old woman stuck her fingers in the carjacker’s eyes. The offender headed back to a burgundy Jeep Cherokee, and drove away.
Chicago police are investigating whether the two carjacking incidents involve the same suspects. The Jeep Cherokee used in the first carjacking had an expired vanity license plate assigned to a different car, according to the Chicago Police Department. In the second carjacking, police were given a partial license plate number from the Jeep that resembled the vanity plate’s digits.
The carjackers at the Mariano’s parking lot were described as three male/black subjects between 20- and 22-years-old who stood 5’10” to 6-feet tall and weighed 150-160 pounds, wearing black hoodies and dark pants, he said.
No description was available for the carjacker who attempted to attack the woman near Best Buy.
Neither victim in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood initially reported any injuries.
The newly deployed surveillance units include at least three cameras, which combined allow 360° views. The trailer in Arlington Heights has a blue strobe that is constantly activated, and is also used as a crime deterrent. The loudspeaker can be used to give orders to an intruder while warning an intruder that they have been detected. The objectives of the system are to Detect, Deter, and Defend. A security guard can be located on site while monitoring the unit, or the Patrol Cams trailer can be monitored from anywhere in the world.
Similar units have been located at Walmart stores in Chicago and Indiana.
The video below shows a presentation of features of the WCCTV Solar Surveillance Trailer …
