Anthony "Tony" Kuber was shot five times by a robber who took his iPhone, even though Kuber was trying to hand the phone over, his father says.



"He said, 'Here, take it,' but they shot him anyway," said Martin Kuber, 57. "He was shot over a stupid iPhone."



His 31-year-old son was knocked unconscious during the attack in the Fuller Park neighborhood on the South Side Monday night, and he may not recover the full use of one of his hands, according to his father and a cousin.



"His right hand is really bad," said Mark Sheehan, from Plainfield. "They told him he has to learn to use his left hand to write with."



Anthony Kuber was heading to his father's home after getting off at the 47th Street Red Line station about 8:35 p.m., and was glancing at his iPhone when two masked robbers confronted him in a viaduct near the Dan Ryan Expressway, police said.



They demanded his coat and they shot him in the chest, arm and leg, according to police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak. They went through his pockets and took his wallet, stole his jacket and his phone, said Kubiak. The robbers, wearing black clothes and masks, fled north through an alley where his jacket and his wallet were recovered, according to Kubiak.



Kuber, knocked unconscious, was taken to Stroger Hospital and placed on a ventilator, but was doing better today and a breathing tube has been removed, Sheehan said. More surgery was scheduled.



"He's in a lot of pain and he's scared too because he's not done (in the hospital)'' his father said. "I'm waiting for him to get out of surgery because the bullets went through his elbow, into his lungs and they shot him in the stomach, the hand and the kneecap."



Authorities told his injured cousin that he will never have full use of his right hand again.



Martin Kuber said he learned of the attack when one of his other sons, Alex, was returning home from a nearby Walgreens and saw police in the area. When he asked the officers what was going on, they told him told him a 31-year-old man had been robbed and shot.



The father and son contacted Kuber's fiance, who told them he had left her Lincoln Park residence hours ago. The two feared the robbery victim would be Kuber. "I was frantic,'' said Martin Kuber. "I got ahold of his girlfriend and we rushed down to the hospital."



Kuber said his son told him at the hospital he was never taking the Red Line again.



"Why do you have to shoot somebody five times to take an iPhone unless you're just an evil person," he said. "It does make me so mad but there's nothing you can do, it's over and done with.



"I wouldn't want this to happen to anyone else,'' said his father. "People have to be alert instead of walking in these bad areas. He made a mistake by doing this and I hate to see this happen. It's a really bad area where he got shot. I grew up there, it's always been that one stretch."



rsobol@tribune.com

Twitter:@RosemarySobol1