Pickup Truck Passenger Broke Out Back Window, Punched Driver: Cops

JOLIET, IL — A man riding in the bed of a pickup truck broke out the back window and repeatedly punched the driver before jumping out and dashing off, police said.

Robert Maack, 31, was riding around with a 56-year-old man shortly before 6:30 p.m. Wednesday when the driver dropped him off on Center Street near Mason Avenue.

Maack, a resident of Daybreak Shelter, according to county records, returned to the 1994 GMC pickup and asked for a credit card so he could force open the lock on the door of a residence, police said. The driver turned him down, and Maack climbed into the bed of the pickup.

Near the intersection of Center and Plainfield Road, the driver pulled over and ordered Maack out of the pickup’s bed. Instead of getting out, Maack told the man to “go where you’re going. I’m going to beat the hell out of you and rob you,” police said.

The driver got back in the pickup and headed toward the police station for help. But along the way, Maack allegedly broke out the back window and repeatedly punched the older man in the head and upper body, all the while shouting about robbing him.

Maack then jumped out of the pickup’s bed and ran away, police said, but the cops found him on Cagwin Avenue just off Jefferson Street.

Maack was “extremely irate” and refused to speak with officers, police said, but was taken into custody without incident.

Maack was charged with aggravated battery, vehicular invasion and criminal damage to property. He was booked into the Will County jail.