An employee of McGaffer’s Restaurant, 7737 Roosevelt Rd., arrived at work on the morning of Oct. 25 to find a man, identified later as Christopher McNear, attempting to enter the restaurant’s back door using a pry bar.

When the employee asked the man what he was doing, he said he had seen a woman lying on the floor between the bar and the restaurant and wanted to get into the bar to help.

The employee asked McNear to accompany him to the nearby 7-Eleven store to call police, which he did. McNear told police that he had once worked at the restaurant when it went by the name Smilin’ Joes, and had been trying to get his old job back.

He said he had an appointment with a woman named Joan to discuss the job. When he arrived, he said, he saw a woman lying on the floor and went back to his car to get his pry bar to help.

The rear door’s padlock was completely pried off, according to the police report. Police did not find the woman who McNear claimed he had seen in the restaurant.

Police contacted McGaffer’s owner Patrick Malone, who said he did not know McNear and the restaurant was not hiring. Asked why he had the pry bar, McNear said he used it to change tires, but did not respond when police pointed out that the tool could not be used for that purpose.

McNear was arrested and charged with attempted burglary and possession of burglary tools.

 

Armed robbery

A police car was flagged down as it headed westbound on Jackson Avenue near Thomas on Oct. 28 by a man claiming to have been the victim of a hit-and-run crash.

He said he last saw the vehicle, described as a brown GMC van with a ladder, driving westbound on Jackson and turning northbound onto Desplaines. Police found the vehicle driving at a high speed on Desplaines while being followed by a blue Oldsmobile occupied by two men. The driver of the Oldsmobile yelled out “they just robbed us” while pointing at the van.

Police followed the van, which entered the westbound ramp for the I-290 before coming to a stop. The driver, Jeffery Jones of Bellwood, and two female passengers were ordered out of the car. The men in the Oldsmobile said that Jones had robbed them at gunpoint and taken $40 in cash near 5318 Race St. in Chicago.

The driver and passengers were taken into custody and Chicago police were notified. A resident later came to the police station with a stainless steel revolver he had found on Desplaines between Jackson which matched the description of the weapon used during the robbery.

A name-check of the two female passengers revealed that both had been reported missing, one from Chicago and one from Bellwood. The driver and passengers, as well as all evidence, were turned over to the Chicago Police Department.

 

Staring contest leads to assault

Police responded to a call reporting a fight on the 800 block of Marengo on Oct. 28, and found a man later identified as Alejandro Davalos and another man facing each other, both in a “boxer’s stance.” Davalos, according to the report, was armed with a steel rod about 18-inches in length, which was raised toward the other man.

The officer drew his sidearm and ordered Davalos to drop the rod and lay on the ground, to which Davalos responded by leaning toward the other man and further raising his arm. Believing that Davalos was about to strike the man, the officer aimed his sidearm and repeated his command, which Davalos obeyed.

Both men were detained and while they were in custody it was learned that Davalos had stopped in front of the other man and his pregnant wife at a red light at Desplaines and Harrison and began staring at the man in his rearview mirror. The man stared back for about two minutes until the light turned green.

Later, when the man parked his car at his destination, Davalos appeared and struck the man’s car with the steel road while screaming threats at the man, who told police he got out of his car to create distance between Davalos and his pregnant girlfriend.

Davalos told a similar story, but said that the man had given him the finger during their staring match. He told police that his manhood was disrespected and he had to address it.

Davalos was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

 

These items were taken from the records of the Forest Park Police Department between Oct. 16 and 24 and represent only a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in this report has only been charged with a crime. The cases have not yet been adjudicated.

“Compiled by Seth Stern