Two journalists became part of the story on Monday when they were robbed at gunpoint while reporting on a string of armed robberies in Chicago.
The robbery took place just before 5 a.m. in the 1200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue in the West Town area, Chicago police told media.
The Spanish-language TV station, Univision Chicago, said its reporter and photographer were robbed by three men wearing ski masks and bearing guns, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
The suspects reportedly exited two separate vehicles, demanded money from the two men and stole a camera, two bags containing equipment and a personal backpack. They then fled in the vehicles.
Police said no injuries were reported and no arrests have been made.
The journalists were filming a story about robberies in the West Town community for the morning news.
The footage never aired, as the camera that recorded it was stolen, Luis Godinez, vice president of news at Univision Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune.
Godinez told the Tribune the station covered the robberies on the evening newscast, but didn’t make the incident involving its own news crew the focus.
“We don’t want to make the story about us, because there were other robberies that occurred within that same period,” he said.
At least seven robberies and two carjackings took place in the city between Sunday night and Monday morning, according to CBS 2 Chicago.
Monday’s incident was the second robbery of a news crew in Chicago this month.
Raza Siddiqui, president of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 41, which represents media workers, told the Sun Times the union is concerned about the safety of its members on the job and is looking into solutions.
According to Siddiqui, some of the news stations affiliated with the union planned to implement new safety measures as of Monday night, including providing security to certain crews.