A Maywood teen is facing felony charges after police allegedly caught him driving a stolen Plymouth Voyager just two hours after Chicago police were notified the vehicle was missing.
At about 8 p.m. on Nov. 4, a patrolling officer was driving east along Roosevelt when he checked the vehicle’s registration and found it to have been reported stolen. After tailing the car for several blocks, two other squad cars met the officer and the suspicious vehicle at the intersection with Oak Park Avenue and boxed the car in. However, according to a department report, the driver and a passenger in the front seat both opened the doors while the car was still in gear.
Trenton Land, 17, hopped out of the driver’s seat and the car coasted forward into a police car, according to the report. Land then got back into the car, but was pulled from the vehicle by police. Meanwhile, the passenger was arrested without incident.
At the scene, both Land and the passenger told police they were 16 years old. The passenger is in fact a 16-year-old minor with an August arrest for burglary in Chicago. Land’s true age was later revealed at the police station, according to authorities.
Inside the vehicle, police allegedly recovered a screwdriver and found the steering column and ignition had been tampered with.
Land was charged with being in possession of a stolen vehicle, criminal trespass to a vehicle, resisting arrest, obstructing a police officer and driving without insurance or a license.
The juvenile passenger was released to his mother after being charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, trespassing and possession of burglary tools.
A hotspot for heroin
A fistful of cash and a small amount of heroin was recovered from a driver who had parked his car at a Harlem Avenue gas station, which according to police, is an area that is known to authorities for its drug activity.
According to a department report, 26-year-old Michael Ring, of Maple Park, had pulled his vehicle into a corner of the service station at 601 Harlem at about 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 7. Ring was sitting “slumped forward” in the passenger seat, and an officer approached the car to investigate. A syringe was spotted in Ring’s lap, the officer said in his report, and he had a small plastic bag with a Batman logo containing an off-white powder.
A custodial search of the suspect revealed $276 in cash, police said.
Ring was charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Booze leads to battery arrest
Police arrested a 48-year-old man Nov. 4 after he allegedly struck his girlfriend and tried to choke her with his hands. The woman, who lives with the suspect on the 7400 block of Roosevelt, declined to press charges against her boyfriend, but based on information gathered by police he was taken into custody.
Authorities were called to the residence shortly before 9 p.m. and found the woman holding a compress to her face. When she removed it, police said in their report that she had a large lump over her eye. The couple acknowledged they had been drinking together in the living room when an argument broke out. She told police he had choked her and struck her; he allegedly admitted to “pushing her with both hands.”
Henry Solomon was arrested on a single count of domestic battery.
Loud teen arrested for drinking
A Chicago teen was arrested outside of a Roosevelt Road bar during the early morning hours of Nov. 7 after police became suspicious that she had been drinking.
According to a department report, 19-year-old Ayanna Watkins was spotted by a patrol officer at about 1 a.m. when she was allegedly berating a bouncer at Tonik, 7247 Roosevelt. The security guard told the officer that the woman had been denied entrance to the tavern and was unhappy about being asked to leave, but that he would allow her to wait for a ride at that location. The officer told Watkins that she needed to stop shouting obscenities if she wished to remain on the sidewalk.
Watkins allegedly responded that she was upset because she was a frequent customer at the bar, and that it was unfair of the bouncer not to let her in this time, though she did not have an ID with her.
Approximately 30 minutes later the officer returned to the scene and again found Watkins yelling obscenities. Upon checking her background, he discovered she was not of legal drinking age and arrested her for illegal consumption of alcohol.
These items were taken from the records of the Forest Park Police Department between Nov. 1 and Nov. 8, 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
