Friday, July 13, 2007 Sayson: A cruel, unfortunate coincidence By Homer Sayson Second Overtime
CHICAGO - The incident, according to police records, occurred in the parking lot of Eppel’s Restaurant along 554 West Roosevelt Road, an eatery famous for its fresh and healthy Meditarannean food.
While waiting for Eppel’s doors to open, NBA star Antoine Walker, along with then Boston Celtics teammate Nazr Mohammed and three other friends, sat patiently in their car.
That’s when three unidentified male characters approached Walker’s vehicle. The strangers weren’t autograph-seekers. They weren’t recruiters for Jehovah’s Witnesses either.
They were perps—police lingo for perpetrators—out for an early take.
Walker is 6-foot-9 and 245 pounds. Mohammed is 6-foot-10, 250. Their companions were nearly as burly, but it didn’t matter. They were unarmed and defenseless against the heavily-loaded thugs.
Mean looks were darted and guns were flashed in a hurry. When the heist was over, the goons carted away $3,000 cash. They also harvested Walker’s diamond and platinum Cartier watch valued at $55,000.
Since 2000, Walker had moved from Boston to Dallas to Atlanta, before settling in Miami, where he won an NBA championship ring with the Heats in 2006.
Last Monday night, July 9, 2007, exactly seven years after the Eppel Restaurant hold-up, Walker relived the nightmare in a cruel, unfortunate coincidence.
This time, the trauma was worse. Walker, a Chicago native who starred at Mt. Carmel High, was robbed inside his opulent $4.1 million home at the 400 block of West Huron.
Cash and jewelry were taken, plus a black Mercedes Benz, which was later abandoned and stripped off its wheels at Potomac and Karlov avenues in this city’s West Side.
Two masked intruders orchestrated the home invasion at 6:30 p.m. They entered the vast grey house through the garage, and with a brandished handgun, they tied duct tape around Walker’s wrists and ankles, police office John Mirabelli told the Chicago Tribune.
Superstar athletes usually end up in trouble at bars and strip clubs, nocturnal habitations where guns and volcanic tempers often erupt in violence.
That’s not the case in the twin robberies that victimized Walker. And that’s what makes these criminal acts more disturbing.
The first one happened at a nice restaurant near downtown, where police presence is thick. The second incident played out in the quiet innocence of Antoine’s home, in the city where he grew up, and in one of Chicago’s richest districts.
Walker lives in the greatly affluent River North neighborhood. His neighbors include actor Vince Vaughn, Juanita Jordan, the former Mrs. Michael Jordan, and NFL star Azumah Nelson, who used to play for the Chicago Bears.
River North spills with mansions equipped with motion detectors, alarms, and fortress-like walls. Some homeowners hire private security guards to discourage criminal activity. And the Chicago police regularly patrol the neighborhood.
It didn’t matter. Walker was still robbed at gunpoint, filling his entire body with a cold and nameless terror.
Walker’s sad and traumatic experience reminds us all that even if we don’t seek trouble, chances are, trouble will find us.
THE PONGOS CLAN. Greetings to Sixto “Titong” Pongos. The Ormoc mogul subscribes to Sun.Star Cebu and is a loyal reader of this column. Balt Quinain, Titong’s son-in-law, told me from Orlando, Florida yesterday.
Cheers also to Balt’s brother and sister-in-law: High-profile contractor Engr. Andy Manguerra and his lovely bride, Tina Pongos Manguerra, who owns the swanky Zen Zest.
Despite their crazy hectic schedules, the Manguerras somehow fit Second Overtime in. Thanks.
