Gas station burglars score $5K in bus passes
A Chicago Tribune delivery driver making an early morning delivery discovered a shattered glass front door at the Harlem Go-Mart Mobil gas station, 949 Harlem Ave., around 3 a.m., Aug. 5. Police arrived and noticed the door’s lock had been damaged but not defeated with a pry tool. The offender appeared to have smashed the bottom half of the front door and crawled into the gas station/convenience store. Once inside, the offender(s) removed a cash register containing about $150 in cash and $5,000 in CTA transit passes. Also taken were three display cases of Instant Lottery tickets and an undetermined amount of cash from the Lottery cash register. Surveillance video was not immediately available to police.
Nervous driver backs into parked Camaro
A 34-year-old man who had been observed by police around 10:30 a.m. Aug. 5 making an illegal turn into the Forest Park National Bank parking lot bumped into a red 2010 Camaro parked in the adjacent space. The driver of the 2007 Infiniti G35 was found to have a suspended license following a DUI, which occurred in Chicago three days prior, and also reportedly provided an expired auto insurance card. He was charged with driving with license suspended, traffic violations and operating an uninsured motor vehicle. The Infiniti was impounded by police.
Theft
An apartment coin-operated laundry machine in the basement of a building in the 1100 block of Circle Avenue was reported damaged, overnight Aug. 5-6. The coin container had been pried off and the money stolen.
A bicycle was stolen from under a porch in the 900 block of Circle Avenue, overnight Aug. 10-11.
Postal worker observes baggy drop
A postal employee delivering mail helped Forest Park police recover evidence after an alleged drug dealer fled on foot near Thornton’s gas station around 4:40 p.m., Aug. 6. The letter carrier told police he saw the fleeing 23-year-old Chicago man crouch behind a bush in the 500 block of Elgin Avenue and discard several clear plastic bags containing a white substance suspected to be narcotics. Police had curbed a 2001 Buick Allure after observing the driver turn off Harlem Avenue onto Jackson Boulevard without using a signal. At that time, the man, who was a passenger in the Buick, opened the door and began to walk, then run, away from the police. He was eventually caught and taken into custody. Police recovered several baggies of heroin, cocaine and cannabis, each printed with a dollar sign, from the man and his companion’s car. The man also had $244 cash in his pocket. Police recovered $130 from the driver. After being offered a lie detector exam on the department’s Voice Stress Analyzer apparatus, police said the 24-year-old told them he and his companion were travelling to Forest Park to take drugs with some female friends. He told police he was asked to bring “nine soft and two hard,” which police identified as nine bags of heroin and two of cocaine. He told police he and his friend had acquired the narcotics in the “K-Town” neighborhood in Chicago. The man was charged with possession of controlled substances and obstructing a police officer. The driver was charged with traffic violations.
Busted during photo shoot
Three college-age men were arrested and charged with criminal trespass after police on a premise check, around 9 p.m., Aug. 6, discovered them in the dining room of the abandoned Altenheim building at 7820 Madison St. The men told police they were there to complete a project for one subject’s college photography class. They were issued local ordinance tickets for trespassing, admonished not to return and were released from the scene.
Officer spots suspect who missed court
An officer who had just attended the absentee hearing of a Broadview man charged with misdemeanor cannabis possession at a Maybrook court that morning recognized the man walking at Circle and Lehmer around 7 p.m. The 18-year-old had not shown up for his hearing and the judge had issued a bond forfeiture warrant for $5,000. The Forest Park officer took him into custody under the warrant. He was unable to post the 10 percent bond amount and was held at the Forest Park police lockup.
Pink shoes lead to shoplifting arrest
Police were summoned by Walmart store security around 1:15 p.m., Aug. 9, after they chased a male and female couple who had allegedly stolen more than $300 worth of merchandise from the store. The pair fled eastbound past the Kmart in the 7600 block of Roosevelt Road and were discovered by Forest Park police hiding in the Royal Christian Bookstore in the Forest Park Mall. The 33-year-old Oak Park woman was identified by the bright pink new shoes on her feet, which Walmart employees said she had exchanged for her own dingy white shoes, left behind at the store. Police recovered other stolen items in the bookstore bathroom, including 21 DVD movies, a bra and two bottles of Coke. The total amount stolen was estimated at $342.92. The two were charged with felony retail theft.
Sideswiping driver called in by witness
A neighbor in the 7200 block of Jackson Boulevard called police after observing a silver 2002 Pontiac Grand Am, travelling east, sideswipe his neighbor’s parked 2004 Ford Explorer around 3 a.m., Aug. 10. Police soon stopped a Grand Am with front-end damage at Harlem Avenue and Roosevelt Road. As police curbed the car, the vehicle pulled to the right and struck the curb with enough force to damage the sidewall of the rear tire, causing it to go flat. The driver, a 21-year-old Chicago man, told police the damage to his car was old and that the tire went flat because it was damaged by his mechanic. He denied any knowledge of an accident. The driver failed field sobriety tests and reportedly emitted a strong smell of alcohol. He was arrested and charged with traffic violations, no insurance, leaving the scene of an accident and DUI.
Dude, where’s my car?
An employee at the Seguin Services home in the 7700 block of Taylor said he was preparing to leave his night-shift job, the morning of Aug. 11, left his car keys in his 2009 Honda Odyssey van, and entered the building. Looking out the window, he observed his vehicle heading north on Desplaines Avenue. He told police he jumped into a company van and gave chase north on Desplaines and then west on Madison Street. When his vehicle came to a stoplight, the employee said he boxed it in with the company van, making movement impossible. At that point, the unauthorized driver, a 44-year-old Chicago man reportedly jumped out of the car, waved his arms, and yelled, “You got a problem? I’m gonna kick your ass.” The driver then ran south on Circle and into the 400 block of Hannah alley, where police found him and took him into custody. He was charged with felony possession of a stolen motor vehicle and assault.
These items were obtained from the records of the Forest Park Police Department, Aug. 4-11, 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.
