A mother and daughter who were carjacked in the West Loop have received an outpouring of support following the incident, NBC 5’s Vi Nguyen reports.
A frightening incident for a woman and her young daughter has led to an outpouring of support from neighbors.
Lindsey Muslin and her daughter were carjacked at a popular dog park in Chicago’s West Loop in early January. But after it happened, neighbors stepped up to show how much good is in their community.
“The power of social media and just people actually genuinely caring has made the healing process or the start of the healing process a lot easier,” she said.
Muslin said she and her seven-year-old daughter had just parked their car in the 100 block of South Sangamon on Jan. 5 at around 4:30 p.m. to go to the Mary Bartelme Park when armed carjackers bumped her car and forced her out.
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“The gun was about a foot from me. He was standing in my open door because I was sitting in the car,” she said.
“I just immediately put my head down and my hands up and just told him repeatedly I have a baby, I have a baby, I have a baby and I just bolted out of the car and pulled the back door open and was lucky enough to be able to grab her out of the car.”
Her terrifying story reached many neighbors in the West Loop, like Lynsy Howard who wanted to do something nice to support them.
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“It’s just amazing the number of people who wanted to participate in the group,” said Howard.
Donations poured in for the mother and daughter after Howard made a post in the Real West Loop neighborhood group on Facebook.
“I always have a sense that people in general are good,” said Howard. “But I think this experience kinda confirmed my belief that people are.”
Howard received enough donated items to fill three baskets, including gift cards, toys, and art supplies for Muslin’s daughter. Other neighbors, like Mackenzie Stevens, put together a special book for the young girl, who loves dogs.
“It was amazing and overwhelming, the response that we got,” said Stevens. “I had to put my phone on do not disturb when I went to sleep, because all that afternoon I think I posted it around 6 p.m. and just ding, ding, ding—it was insane the amount of pictures I was getting of dogs.”
West Loop neighbors submitted picture after picture of their dogs hoping to lift the young girl’s spirits.
“All it takes a little time out of your day to do something for a neighbor,” said Stevens. “I think its just as a simple as love thy neighbor. It’s something we take for granted everyday and just going out of your way to do one small deed has created wonderful impact.”
While the world we live in can feel dark at times, Muslin knows there are still good people left, and told NBC 5 that a little bit of kindness goes a long way.
“You hear things out of disasters come blessings, but really truly it’s the truth,” said Muslin. “So I just feel lucky to have had people around us after something like this shows us that selflessness and kindness exist.”
