Clothing in the oven alerts neighbors
After a neighbor reported smoke coming from a vacant apartment in the 7400 block of Madison Street, police discovered a 25-year-old Chicago man inside wearing only boxers and a T-shirt. He told police he had put his wet jeans in the oven to dry them. The man entered the apartment through an unsecured kitchen window off a patio. Police said he appeared to be intoxicated and told them he didn’t know how he got into the apartment, he “just opened his eyes and he was there.” He was charged with criminal trespass.
Rowdy funeral
Forest Park dispatchers received several calls that cars in a funeral procession travelling westbound on Jackson Boulevard toward Desplaines Avenue around 12:40 p.m. July 16 were driving in a reckless manner, blocking lanes, with passengers hanging out of car windows and loud music. One driver of a 2003 Buick Century allegedly blocked the road, incessantly honking his horn. After a warning, the driver sped away to rejoin the funeral procession. But police stopped the Buick and asked for identification of the 23-year-old driver, allegedly a cousin of the deceased. He was found to be without his license and the subject of an outstanding Cook County warrant.
Alley lurker nabbed for warrant
Forest Park police recognized a 34-year-old Maywood man who had been previously caught in a residential burglary walking down the alley in the 800 block of Ferdinand around 1 p.m. July 17. When questioned, he told officers he had just been at court in Maybrook and was walking home. Police questioned that story, since he was travelling in the opposite direction. After he was taken into custody, cops found out he had an outstanding warrant for larceny from the Illinois Department of Corrections and he was held for extradition.
Shoplifting with Grandma
Loss prevention agents at Kmart observed a 43-year-old Chicago woman with eight-year-old grandson in tow removing items from the shelf at 7630 Roosevelt Rd. and stuffing them into a bag around 9:15 p.m. July 17. She was stopped at the exit with 10 items of clothing with value $159.63. She told police she was unemployed and took the items to sell for money. Because of prior theft convictions, she was charged with felony retail theft and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The boy was turned over to a relative.
Bowling with booze/fireworks
Two young men from Oak Park and River Forest ages 20 and 19 were kicked out of Circle Bowl 7244 Circle Ave. around midnight July 18 after managers realized they had brought in their own beer and whiskey. Outside, the lads began pounding on the plate glass window from the sidewalk and shouting obscenities to the employees. Police were summoned. Recovered from one man’s backpack were cans of beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, an empty pop pipe and an assortment of fireworks. The two underage drinkers were given local ordinance citations for booze and illegal fireworks.
Disguised drug container familiar to cops
Officers spotted an Arizona Iced Tea can in the glove compartment of a 20-year-old Maywood man they pulled over for blowing a stop sign at Randolph Street and Circle Avenue. Cops recognized the false ice tea container as a receptacle sold to conceal drugs. Inside the false-bottomed can was 41 grams of cannabis, over the 30 gram felony limit. William Nicks III insisted the pot was a friend’s and not his. However, he was charged with possession of cannabis with intent to deliver and held without bond.
Out of town visitors’ heroin pit stop
Forest Park officers in an unmarked squad car observed a man seated in a parked red 2011 Honda Civic in the Thornton’s gas station, 601 Harlem Ave., repeatedly leaning down between his legs around 11:50 a.m. July 18. When they approached the vehicle, they observed the man injecting a hypodermic needle into his arm and using an aluminum can to cook drugs. Police arrested the 22-year-old Geneva man who said he was originally from Iowa and had been living in a Geneva hotel while travelling to Chicago daily to purchase seven to nine $10 bags of heroin a day from a dealer at Maypole and Kildare Avenues in Chicago. The driver’s companion, who was in the bathroom when police arrived, was also taken into custody. He was found to have two warrants for failure to appear in Kane County. One of the men was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.
Police chase with mom
A driver of a Jeep Cherokee fleeing from police with his mother in the passenger seat rear-ended a stopped car at Harlem Avenue and Madison Street, blew through a red light and sped the wrong way down a one-way street. He was finally stopped at 205 Harlem Avenue and charged with fleeing an officer. The cop had observed him turning into a gas station parking lot without signaling and ordered him to stop the vehicle when he sped away. The 39-year-old Cicero man’s 61-year-old mother said she saw the officer’s flashing lights and advised her son to stop the car, but he panicked and drove away. He was charged with felony aggravated fleeing and attempting to elude an officer.
Credit refused
An allegedly intoxicated 24-year-old Oak Park man was arrested at Short Stop Lounge around midnight after revealing he had no means of paying for the booze he had consumed earlier in the evening. He told police he had handed his debit card to an unknown man who left the bar. He said he thought he could just settle his tab next time he visited the tavern. Instead, he was issued a local ordinance citation and told never to return.
Trash tosser splatters cop car
A 21-year-old Chicago man got in trouble when he tossed a half-full can of pop out the window of his 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe around 2:46 a.m. July 19 and it struck the windshield of an off duty Cook County Sheriff’s officer’s car that had been “freshly detailed.” The man fled to a house in the 200 block of Elgin Avenue and ran upstairs to the second floor. When police arrived, the litterer apologized to the owner of the car saying, “I’m not proud of what I did tonight.” He was issued two local ordinance citations for public littering.
$500 bribe offer doesn’t get man off DUI
Forest Park cops found a 44-year-old Oak Park man asleep at the wheel of his running Chevy Impala around 11 p.m. July 20 near Marengo and Circle Avenues. After officers pounded on the window and awoke him, the man allegedly became combative, then offered one officer $500 to let him go. An “airplane bottle” of Smirnoff vodka was recovered from the Impala. He was brought to the station where it was revealed he had prior charges of DUI and had his license revoked. He refused to take a breathalizer test, telling cops, “It’s too late, all you’re doing is costing me money because I’m going to beat this.” He also struck the walls of the holding cell with his fists and head. Finally he lay on the ground of the holding cell. He was charged with aggravated driving with license revoked and felony DUI.
Thefts
A secured black and silver Fuji bicycle was removed from the bike rack at the Green Line CTA station at Harlem Avenue during the day July 2. The owner reported it stolen July 14. Loss was reported at $150.
A witness told CTA operators he saw a man use tin snips to cut the lock of a bike secured at the Blue Line CTA station and carry the bicycle up the stairs and onto the train platform around 2:45 p.m. July 15. When told he couldn’t take the bike on the train, the thief exited the station and rode away. The owner of the bike came back to find it missing around 5 p.m.
Another locked bike was removed from the Desplaines Avenue Blue Line terminus overnight July 16-17.
A spare tire disappeared from a Toyota Rav4 parked in the 7300 block of Circle between July 13-17.
These items were obtained from the records of the Forest Park Police Department, July 14-20, 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.
