Forest Park police curbed a car matching a description of a vehicle reported to be driven by a man with a gun on Aug. 3. When approaching the curbed car, Officer Nick DeFors smelled marijuana. He searched the car, but found nothing inside. Noticing the smell was stronger toward the rear, he opened the trunk.

Inside the trunk, according to a police report, he saw a brick of what appeared to be marijuana, and placed the driver, Andre Powell, 23, of Dekalb, in custody.

He continued the search, and under the first brick found a yellow and black canvass bag, which contained another brick of suspected marijuana. There was also a Ziploc bag containing three smaller baggies, a clear plastic bundle, and a small knotted bag, each filled with a substance that later tested positive for cannabis.

Police also found a large sum of cash, two cellphones, and a gray portable scale. The car was towed, and Powell was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and manufacture and delivery of cannabis.

The marijuana found weighed 1,812 grams, or about four pounds.

Cellphones found after suspect ditches cab

Police were called to respond to a cab fare dispute on July 29 at the 701 Harlem Ave. CTA station.

A driver said a man entered his cab at Division and State Street in Chicago and told him to stop at the CTA station. He then fled the cab on foot.

Sgt. Eric Bell found the man, identified as Kevin Jenig, 24, of Worth, at the station.

The driver confirmed Jenig was the subject, and said he owed him 9.25. Jenig had 55 cents on his person.

The driver said if he was not paid, he would press charges, and Jenig, who appeared intoxicated, asked the driver to take him to Worth, where he would get him money at his grandmother’s house.

The driver declined, and Jenig was taken into custody. According to a report, he told police, “I’ve been through things like this before. Do what you guys want to do. I’ll do the day of community service.”

During a search of Jenig, two cellphones were found in his pockets. He admitted he did not know who owned one of them. The mother of the owner of the phone was contacted.

Jenig was charged with theft of labor or services.

Armed robbery at Mobil station

A clerk at the Mobil station at 949 Harlem Ave. told police that on July 31 a man entered the station, walked up to the cashier’s window, pulled a chrome semi-automatic pistol and said, “Guess what? This is a stick-up. Give me your money.”

The clerk opened the register and gave the man all the bills inside, to which he said, “Is that all you got?” When the clerk said yes, the man told him to get on the ground, and by the time he got up, the man had left the station.

He described the robber as a black male wearing a bright red cap, a white T-shirt and dark blue jean shorts, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall with a medium-to-heavy build and a goatee. Due to a malfunction by the store’s security camera, police were not able to get any evidence from the recording. Cicero police later contacted Forest Park police to inform them that they had received a similar description of a suspect in a robbery just before the one in Forest Park. The suspect in that robbery had escaped in a blue Mercury Marquis.

The clerk estimated the Mobil station’s losses at 00, but said he’d have to wait for a manager to get the exact amount.

Break-in at Roosevelt Road bar

The owner of Tonik, 7247 Roosevelt Road, told police that on July 30, after a bartender had closed the bar and left, an unknown offender had removed an electric meter in the rear of the building, cutting the power to the bar’s alarm and surveillance camera.

The offender reportedly also cut the cable and phone lines outside the building. He then kicked in the lower corner of the back door and entered the bar. He went into the basement and pried open the owner’s office door, apparently searching for money.

The owner said he was unsure whether money was missing but noted he had recently had a dispute with one of the bartenders and suspected the bartender of taking money but had been unable to prove it. The dispute, he said, began when he cut the bartender’s hours.

These items were taken from the records of the Forest Park Police Department between July 27 and August 5, 2006 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 been adjudicated.

Compiled by Seth Stern