Needles and cooker inside a sock

Police stopped a man driving a 1994 white Buick Century that was swaying within its lane and driving too slow for conditions around 11:20 a.m. on Harlem near the I-290 expressway on Sept. 12. The car then pulled onto the expressway, followed by the cop and instantly crossed traffic to the far right lane. The driver left the turn signal going which caused other drivers to brake. After being pulled over, the 28-year-old from Joliet told police he was on his way to work in Plainfield. When asked why he was in Forest Park, he said he “stopped at a friend’s house for a while.” When asked if he had any contraband in his car, he admitted he had “some needles and a cooker inside my sock.” Police also recovered 2 grams of heroin, two hypodermic needles and an empty Altoid tin with a burnt bottom. The man, who told police he has used heroin since 2001, said he bought five baggies of heroin and went to the River Forest McDonald’s, where he shot the drugs inside the bathroom. He said he uses 2-3 bags of heroin a day and recently started the Methadone program. He was charged with possessionof narcotics and paraphernalia as well as traffic violations.

Concealed plastic

A woman with a previous conviction for armed robbery and attempted homicide was caught on surveillance video on Sept. 14, stuffing pre-paid debit cards worth $63 down her pants in the clothing section of the Walmart, 1300 Desplaines Ave. Regina Givens, 47, of Chicago was charged with felony retail theft because of her previous convictions.

Bike and car stolen

A garage in the 7700 block of Adams was broken into via the side service door during the day on Sept. 10 and a black men’s Schwinn 10-speed was stolen.

A 2000 green Chrysler Voyager van was stolen from its long-term parking spot in a lot in the 7300 block of Circle Ave. sometime between Aug. 13 and Sept. 13. The owner had all keys to the vehicle, which had a clear title.

Left without the TV

A man arrived home to his apartment in the 1500 block of Harlem Avenue, around 10 p.m., Sept. 13, walked in the front door and found his LG flat screen TV on the floor by the front door with all cables unplugged. He observed that his back door was slightly ajar with the top chain broken and the doorknob tampered with. Drawers throughout the apartment were ransacked, but nothing appeared to be missing.

Finders, weepers

A woman said she left a white Samsung T999 Galaxy III cellphone, worth $630, in the console of a truck she had returned to the U-Haul at 801 Harlem and had given the keys to an employee. Five to 10 minutes later she returned, having realized she forgot her phone and asked the employee to return it to her. He allegedly showed her to a different truck and said no phone was there. The woman insisted it was not the same truck and asked to speak to a manager. She asked several times for the return of her phone, even offering a reward for it, but the employee reportedly continued to deny having it. As the woman waited inside the office to speak to the manager, she and other witnesses observed the employee handing a white phone through the window of a silver Saturn that had just arrived in the parking lot. She called 911. When police arrived, they observed the Saturn exiting the lot with the driver wearing no seatbelt. Police asked the driver if he had the cellphone, and he denied it. But a safety patdown revealed a bulge in his front pocket from which the officers recovered the phone. When asked why he didn’t admit to the phone, the Saturn driver said he did not want to get his buddy “in trouble at work.”

Police charged the U-Haul employee, Dane Jones, 22, from Oak Park, with felony theft over $300, based on a history of past theft convictions. The Saturn driver got a local ordinance ticket for driving without a seatbelt.

These items were obtained from the records of the Forest Park Police Department, Sept. 10-16, 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 Jean Lotus