An armed robbery allegedly carried out during the early morning hours of Mother’s Day was recorded by the security system at the Roosevelt Road store that was struck, according to a police report, but the footage was not immediately available for investigators to review.
It was shortly before 5 a.m. when an unidentified gunman walked into the 7-Eleven and went directly to the counter where he brandished a black semi-automatic pistol and demanded that the cashier open the register. The suspect fled with the drawer and roughly $400 in cash, heading east on foot and then north to the rear of the building located at the corner with Desplaines Avenue, according to police.
No shots were fired in the alleged heist and the clerk was not injured.
Police were not able to recover any physical evidence from the scene and were waiting for the store’s owner to provide them with a copy of the security camera’s footage.
Not just for golfing
A Beloit Avenue woman reported to police that her apartment had been burglarized, likely between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on May 8, with the offender making off with a stack of credit cards, a DVD player and possibly some jewelry.
According to a department report, the woman showed police that a rear window to her apartment at 824 Beloit Ave. had been pried open and two bedrooms ransacked. A jewelry box in one of the bedrooms had at least been “tampered with,” though it was unclear whether anything had been taken. Ten to 12 credit cards and a DVD player from the living room were reported missing.
A golf club found in the apartment did not belong to the woman living there, according to police, and may have been left behind after the burglar used it to pry the window open.
Cabbies rumble
After “settling a dispute between two cab drivers” at the el station on Desplaines Avenue, the officer was quickly called back to the scene on May 6 by several onlookers who were shouting and whistling as the same cabbies squared off for a brawl.
It was shortly before midnight when the fight broke out and Daniel D. Nantes, 62, of Berwyn, was eventually taken into custody for battery. According to a department report, the officer witnessed Nantes and the other driver trade swings, and then spoke with a bystander at the scene. Neither driver sustained serious injury, and it was unclear from the report exactly what the taxi drivers were fighting about in the first place.
Officer berated over citations
An officer patrolling the 200 block of Circle Avenue on May 9 received an earful from an 18 year old and his mother after citing the teen for failing to register his Chevrolet with the village. According to a department report, the shouting began shortly before 4:30 p.m. when the officer wrote Jeremy L. Jones a ticket for not having a valid Forest Park sticker on his car. Jones refused to take the ticket when the officer attempted to hand it to him, unleashing several curse words and refusing to pay the citation.
When Jones ripped the ticket to pieces and tossed it on the ground, the officer cited him for littering. On his way back to his patrol car, the officer was approached by Jones’ mother who further berated him for “harassing her children.”
Shoplifter hit with multiple counts
An employee of the Ultra Foods grocery store on Roosevelt Road was charged with theft, two counts of battery and possession of heroin on May 9 after he was allegedly caught trying to steal several items from the store at the start of his shift.
According to police, 45-year-old Keith L. Covington was detained by store security after sneaking several items under his clothes. Covington, a Chicago resident, then tried to push his way past the employees before being apprehended again. Once in police custody, a search of the suspect turned up less than a gram of heroin that was found tucked into his shoe. Covington allegedly admitted to having ingested “a bag and a half” of the drug prior to showing up for work.
Suspect has previous conviction
A 27-year-old Chicago man was charged with felony domestic battery after allegedly punching a girlfriend in the eye, causing a laceration that would require stitches. According to a department report, the May 7 incident occurred at 7:30 p.m. at 303 Desplaines Ave. where Tehavas W. Burnette got into a dispute with his girlfriend over a phone call she received from an ex-boyfriend. When police arrived at the scene, Burnette had already fled the area but was later taken into custody by River Forest police. He allegedly told authorities he ran because of a February conviction for domestic battery.
Anyone with information regarding the cases mentioned in this report, or on another matter, is encouraged to contact the department’s hotline at (708) 615-6239. Information may be left anonymously.
These items were taken from the records of the Forest Park Police Department between May 4 and May 11, 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 Josh Adams
