A 27-year-old tow truck driver for a Rolling Meadows company was killed early Friday morning while on the job in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood.
Jack Jacobsen was a Navy veteran and expectant father. He and his fiancee had been preparing for their baby shower this weekend.
Ericha Lilly-Hosick knew something was terribly wrong when she received a call from her son’s friend.
“They had been on the phone when my son was shot,” Lilly-Hosick said.
She immediately picked up his fiancee and drove as fast as she could to her son. But, by the time she got there, he was already gone.
“As his mother, I had to make that drive. I had to know and I had that hope that my son wasn’t gone,” Lilly-Hosick said.
Jacobsen had just repossessed a black Land Rover in East Garfield Park when he was ambushed by a large group of people about 1:30 a.m., his company, Northwest Recovery, said.
Jacobsen was shot to death while sitting in the front seat of his tow truck. The front windshield was riddled with bullet holes on the 3000 block of West Fifth Avenue.
Northwest Recovery’s attorney said the company was trying to sort out exactly what happened, as repossessions can sometimes be dangerous for tow truck drivers.
“We don’t know if this was a random act, if it was a directed action or if it was simply car thieves that saw someone turn the keys to a very expensive automobile over,” said attorney Tom Glasgow. “He’s a great kid. I just saw a tremendous kid who had a great personality and was always upbeat. It is such a tragic loss.”
Police were pulling video from a city pod camera nearby, and Glasgow said the tow truck was also equipped with several cameras.
“They provide a very wide swath of visual view for what occurs during a repossession and what happens after the repossession in order to protect our drivers,” Glasgow said.
Jacobsen’s daughter is due in February. What’s getting the family through right now is knowing that his legacy will carry on.
“He’s got a little girl on the way, and she’s never going to know her daddy,” Lilly-Hosick said.
Authorities said a handgun was recovered next to the victim, but police have not said if that gun was fired. It’s also unclear who that gun belonged to.
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