An admitted heroin addict who stole a car in Hanover Park was caught by Forest Park police after a brief chase through gridlocked highway traffic, according to a department report.
Officer Tom Hall received a bulletin regarding a stolen green Mercury Mountaineer at about 11 a.m. Sept 23 and pulled his patrol car to the side of Interstate 290, waiting for the vehicle. When the eastbound vehicle went by, Hall tailed the suspect and radioed for backup.
But another emergency situation on a nearby surface street was blocking traffic, according to police. Between the gridlock and the additional officers now on the scene, authorities believed the suspect was boxed in, but the man pulled onto the shoulder and weaved through traffic. Then, with progress all but impossible, the suspected car thief jumped out of the car, leaving the Mountaineer in gear so that it wandered slowly and harmlessly into the concrete median.
Police pursued their man on foot into a “warehouse-like building” at 4553 Lexington Ave. until they cornered him under a box truck, according to the report. The suspect, 44-year-old Tommie Lee Moore, of Calumet City, allegedly told authorities that he stole the vehicle from a convenience store so that he could drive to Chicago and purchase heroin.
“He wished to make it clear he didn’t mean any harm to anybody, and when he got caught he was up front and honest about his misdeeds, which he has labeled, ‘a stupid thing a person on drugs does,'” police said in their report.
Moore was charged with felony possession of a stolen automobile, driving on a suspended license and fleeing the police.
More than a name
A 25-year-old Chicago man may have only been fulfilling his destiny when he was arrested Sept. 22 for shoplifting an iPod charger at Wal-Mart on Roosevelt Road.
Jordan V. Outlaw was taken into custody shortly before 6:30 p.m. after store security allegedly spotted him trying to steal the $30 item from the store, according to a department report. Outlaw was charged with a single count of felony theft because of a prior conviction.
According to police, Outlaw did make a statement regarding the incident:
“I didn’t steal nothin’,” he said.
Traffic stop yields marijuana
Two Riverside men were cited for allegedly violating a local ordinance when police recovered a small amount of marijuana and a pipe during a traffic stop at the junction of Desplaines Avenue and Roosevelt Road.
Christian Martinez and Jeffrey Falater were pulled over Sept. 22 for a seatbelt violation, according to a department report, when the officer noticed a strong marijuana odor coming from the vehicle. Falater allegedly admitted to having a pipe and a small bag of the drug, and Martinez acknowledged that he, too, had a quantity of the drug. In total, the marijuana weighed 5 grams and both men received a citation calling them back to Forest Park for a Nov. 5 hearing at village hall.
Warrant leads to drug charge
A 24-year-old Cicero man was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant out of DuPage County Sept. 22 after a patrol officer spotted the suspect driving along Roosevelt Road. According to police, Luis M. Vizcaino immediately acknowledged that there was a warrant for his arrest, however, police also found a small amount of marijuana and marijuana seeds under his car seat, according to the report.
Vizcaino was cited with a local ordinance violation for the drugs. The DuPage warrant was for driving with a suspended license.
Suspicious car stopped near Grove
Because of a rash of vehicle burglaries in the area, a patrol officer became suspicious of a slowly moving vehicle in the parking lot of the Residences at the Grove on Van Buren Street and pulled the driver over to investigate. The occupants of the black Saturn sedan appeared to be looking at vehicles parked at the housing complex, according to police.
Michael J. Evers and 23-year-old Kathryn Czarnowski, of Lyons, smelled of marijuana, according to police, and Evers was asked to step out of the car. The man, whose age and hometown were not reported, allegedly admitted to having a pipe in his possession. A search of the car revealed the pipe and roughly 4 grams of marijuana, according to police, but Czarnowski said all of it belonged to her.
Both were cited for possession of marijuana and paraphernalia.
These items were taken from the records of the Forest Park Police Department between Sept. 21 and Sept. 28, 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
