CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago police are warning people about a string of armed robberies on the city's West and Northwest sides. The robberies happened within minutes of each other on Wednesday. The crimes stretched between the East Garfield Park and Humboldt Park neighborhoods. Investigators said in one case, a victim was pistol-whipped.

An armed robbery investigation prompted a lockout at two Hilton Central School District schools late Thursday morning.

A man was reportedly shot during an armed robbery in New Orleans East on Thursday morning, according to the New Orleans Police Department. Just before 10:30 a.m., emergency services were called to a home in the 4600 block of Lancelot Drive for a report of a "man down," police said.

A pair of Peoria men were indicted in U.S. District Court Tuesday on charges that they robbed three massage parlors in central Illinois over the past two months.

Detectives arrested a teenager in connection with a kidnapping and robbery of a 12-year-old boy, Baltimore police said.

Armed robbery and weapons charges have been filed in the aftermath of a gas station robbery in Hartland Township.

An armed robbery suspect crashed into an Upstate home while on the run from deputies. According to the Anderson County Sheriff's Office, the agency was assisting the Greenville County Sheriff's Office with an armed robbery case.