Man nabbed for early morning retail thefts

Last week, Forest Park police arrested a 45-year-old Chicago man and charged him with two counts of felony retail theft after he allegedly stole items on two different dates from Ultra Foods, the 24-hour grocery store at 7520 Roosevelt Road in the Forest Park Plaza shopping center.

According to police, Leroy Bogan entered Ultra Foods about 6 a.m. on Oct. 1 and was seen concealing items inside a backpack before exiting the store without paying for them.

Store security detained Bogan outside the store and recovered the merchandise, which was valued at about $150. He was turned over to police.

But that wasn’t the only time Bogan lifted merchandise from the store, according to police, and it wasn’t the only early morning heist reported at the store recently. 

The arrest followed on the heels of a couple of large retail thefts that occurred during the early morning hours of Sept. 26.

An employee of Ultra Foods called police to report that about 2 a.m. on Sept. 26, a subject entered the store and went to the health and beauty products aisle, where he placed several items inside a large backpack and then left the store without paying for them. The incident was recorded on the store’s video surveillance cameras.

Then about 4:50 a.m., surveillance video showed a man pushing a grocery cart full of meat out of the store. According to the employee, the cart had been placed in the front of the store prior to the subject’s arrival.

According to the police report describing Bogan’s arrest, it was Bogan who was captured on surveillance video taking items from the health and beauty aisle on Sept. 26. The loss in that incident was estimated at about $1,330. Police did not link Bogan to the meat theft.

At the time of his arrest, Bogan was on parole. In 2012, he was convicted of a 2010 residential burglary and sentenced to seven years in prison. He was paroled in March 2014.

Bogan is being held at Cook County Jail, with his bond set at $1,000, awaiting an Oct. 8 court date at the Maybrook courthouse.

 Garage burglarized

A resident of the 900 block of Marengo Avenue called police last week to report that, between 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 27 and 7 p.m. on Sept. 28, someone entered the garage and removed a women’s blue mountain bike.

The victim told police the garage was locked when she arrived home, but police reported there were no signs of forced entry to the garage.

Alcohol was involved

A 37-year-old Chicago woman and her 25-year-old niece from Aurora were arrested and cited for public fighting, after a police officer on patrol, reported hearing yelling coming from the 1200 block of Marengo Avenue on Oct. 4 about 1:30 a.m.

As the officer approached the area, he reported two “very intoxicated” women yelling at each other. Others were separating the two women as the officer arrived, and both women were reportedly bleeding from small scratches and cuts on their faces.

Both women refused medical attention but were handed local ordinance violations for fighting by police.

 A/C unit targeted

A Forest Park Public Works employee contacted police on Oct. 4 about 1:35 p.m. to report that the air-conditioning unit located behind the water pumping station at 7640 Jackson Blvd. had been torn apart.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared that someone had used a tool to cut out the condenser and coil from the unit. Police reported that it’s unclear when the incident might have occurred.

 Battery to an officer

Two 26-year-old men, one from Bellwood and one from Romeoville, were charged with battery to a police officer and resisting arrest after the two were allegedly involved in a disturbance inside Doc Ryan’s 7432 Madison St. on Oct. 4 about 2:50 a.m.

According to the police report, the Romeoville man was accused of throwing a bar stool and flipping over a table as employees tried to get patrons to leave the bar at closing time.

As police tried to detain the suspect, the Bellwood man reportedly got in the way of police and shoved an officer who tried to get him to move out of the way. Both men were reportedly told they were no longer welcome at the bar. 

 These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, Sept. 29-Oct. 4, and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Unless otherwise indicated, anybody named in these reports has only been charged with a crime. These cases have not been adjudicated.

 —Compiled by Bob Uphues