Couple Robbed Police Dispatcher While She Was Trapped in Car Wreckage, Prosecutors Say

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Victoria Mesarina, a dispatcher with the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications for 26 years, was driving home in uniform when another vehicle slammed into the driver’s side of her car in the 3300 block of West Douglas Boulevard around 2:30 p.m. July 3. The other driver ran away, leaving Mesarina trapped in the damaged vehicle. A bystander let her use his phone to call 911, but the wreckage and her injuries kept her from getting out, according to court records.

While Mesarina remained trapped, waiting for first responders, prosecutors said, 25-year-old James Nelson climbed into the back seat, opened her purse and took a black coin purse containing her driver’s license and various debit, credit and gift cards. When Mesarina asked what he was doing, Nelson’s girlfriend, Mahogany Vann, 24, allegedly got into the front passenger seat and began feeling around Mesarina’s waistline as if searching for something.

Nelson and Vann fled as sirens approached. Chicago firefighters extricated Mesarina from the wreckage and took her to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she soon learned that two of her debit cards were being used at a gas station in the 500 block of South California Avenue, according to prosecutors. Police also obtained surveillance video from a BP station at Roosevelt Road and Independence Boulevard showing Nelson getting out of a Jeep registered to Vann and making a purchase shortly after Mesarina’s cards were stolen.

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[Editor’s Note: Photos of the perps and victim are at the original article link below.]