Gary Dailey Chases Robber: 'Sick' Of Passive Bystanders, Cop's Brother Chases Down Cell Phone Snatcher

Gary Dailey chased after a tall, fleet-footed cell phone robber following Fourth of July festivities in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood Thursday night for one simple reason: He was sick of inaction.

Dailey told the Sun-Times that amid a rambunctious crowd of "about 50" people — mostly teenagers — crowding the underpass leading from the Lake Front Trail to Division Street around 9:30 p.m., a man tried to reach into Dailey's pocket and take his cell phone.

After the 51-year-old real estate broker swatted the man's hand away, he heard a woman scream at the same perpetrator, "You (expletive), you're stealing my phone," the Tribune reports.

Describing the scene, Dailey told the paper the towering man — six-foot-five by his estimate — was trying to wrest the phone from the petite woman's hand as her child stood nearby. "He started running toward me and he ran up to the stairs and I decided I was sick of it," Dailey said.

After the cell phone robber took off, Dailey, a former track athlete and marathoner, chased him on foot and dialed 911. Once police closed in on the scene, Dailey was able to point out the perpetrator, 18-year-old Quejuan Henley. DNAinfo Chicago reports Henley was charged with felony robbery and later held on $50,000 bond.

The 41-year-old woman got her phone back, albeit with a cracked screen. Dailey said she was just grateful he was willing to take action.

“My youngest brother is a cop in the 15th District. That’s the reason I did this," Dailey, a born-and-raised Chicagoan, told the Sun-Times. "He constantly complains to me that a bunch of these crimes happen and people just stand around and stare and no one helps.”