A Hobart, Ind., man was arrested on the afternoon of Oct. 24 after a caller informed police that the suspect appeared to be trying to break into a car on the 600 block of Harlem Avenue.
A neighbor of the resident who lives on that block told police that Joseph Ellul was tampering with the resident’s car door lock in an attempt to break in. The caller said Ellul also might have tried to get into the resident’s home.
When police responded to the call, Ellul told officers that the homeowner was paying him to clean up around the residence while he was out of town. Ellul was surrounded by mounds of garbage as he talked with police. The caller told police that Ellul was moving trash cans in an alley, possibly in an attempt to get into the house.
Ellul denied being near the vehicle and, later in the field interview, offered police a different explanation as to what he was doing near the property.
He was arrested for criminal trespassing to a vehicle and taken to police headquarters, where police searched him and found a 1-gram bag of heroin and several other items of drug paraphernalia.
As a result, he was also charged with possession of a controlled substance and drug equipment.
Panhandling with paraphernalia
A Romeoville man who was approached by police for panhandling near Thornton’s Gas Station, 600 Harlem Ave., was arrested when an officer found drugs and paraphernalia on him.
Twenty-three-year-old Daniel Ford was reportedly asking patrons for donations (a violation of local ordinance) when police approached him and asked if he had any drugs or paraphernalia. Ford admitted to having “a couple of needles and a cooker.”
Police searched him and found the two needles and also discovered half of an aluminum can with a burnt underside (indicating that narcotics had been cooked on it, according to the report).
Fore was charged with sale or delivery of drug paraphernalia, according to police.
Arrestee had his hands full
Police arrested a Bloomingdale man, early Oct. 29, after finding him passed out in the front seat of his car with has pants down, one hand on his genitals, and a cell phone loaded with pornography in the other.
Douglas Deselms, 27, had parked on the 100 block of Desplaines Avenue.
Police tried several times to stir him before he eventually woke up and told the reporting officers to “leave me alone.”
According to the police report, Deselms seemed intoxicated and made a crude comment to a female officer when she asked him to clothe himself.
Because he appeared so intoxicated (he reportedly could not stand), he wasn’t asked to perform any field sobriety tests. Officers searched the vehicle and found a glass pipe (one that police said was for smoking marijuana).
Deselms was charged with DUI, public indecency, possession of drug equipment and operating an uninsured motor vehicle.
Admitted addicts
Two self-admitted heroin addicts were pulled over on the 200 block of Harlem Avenue for a traffic violation on the afternoon of Oct. 29 and arrested after an officer found drugs in their possession.
Steven Call, 39, of Momence, and Daniel Cromwell, 39, of Monee were reportedly in a car with 12 grams of heroin and drug paraphernalia when an officer stopped Call for changing lanes without using his signal.
While speaking to the two men, the officer reported they seemed extremely nervous. According to the report, he spotted a spoon with a burnt top and a needle cap inside the car.
The two were asked to step out of the car, and the officers allegedly found several packages of heroin: 7 grams were reportedly linked to Cromwell and 5 grams to Call.
They were taken to headquarters where each admitted to being a heroin addict. Cromwell told an officer that he and Call drove up to Oak Park to purchase heroin.
Call was charged with possessing a controlled substance, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, possession of drug equipment, driving with no license on person and failure to signal.
Cromwell was charged with possessing a controlled substance and possession of drug equipment.
DUI and traffic violations
A local man was arrested for DUI early Oct. 31 after he was stopped for a traffic violation, then failed several field sobriety tests.
Thirty-four-year-old Forest Parker Jorge Martinez was pulled over on the 300 block of Harlem Avenue after an officer saw him blow through a red light at Randolph Street and Circle Avenue.
The officer who stopped Martinez reported smelling alcohol on his breath, so Martinez was asked to perform field sobriety tests – he failed all of them.
He was arrested, taken to headquarters and charged with DUI, a vehicle violation code, parking illegally in a handicapped zone and a traffic control offense.
These items were obtained from the records of the Forest Park Police Department, Oct. 24-30, and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Unless otherwise indicated, anyone named in the report has only been charged with a crime.
-Compiled by Nick Moroni
