Forest Park man charged with body shop burglary
A 29-year-old Forest Park man is being held without bond at Cook County Jail after being charged with stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of auto painting equipment from a Forest Park auto body shop on Dec. 20, 2016.
Khan A. Hunt was arrested after police detectives combed a pawn shop database and learned that Hunt had pawned several items taken in the burglary at ABRA Auto Body and Glass, 1045 Desplaines Ave.
Hunt was charged with one count of burglary. He has a hearing Jan. 12 at the Maybrook courthouse.
Police obtained surveillance camera video from the business, which showed an offender dressed in a black puffy jacket break a glass office door to gain entry to the business a little after midnight on Dec. 20.
Seventeen items, valued at more than $9,000, were taken in the burglary.
Apartment building break-ins
A resident of an apartment building in the 1100 block of Troost Avenue called police on Jan. 4 to report that someone had broken into his residence while he was at work between 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 3 and 2 a.m. on Jan. 4.
According to the police report, someone entered the apartment through an apparently unlocked front door and removed a 55-inch LG flat panel TV, a 40-inch Vizio flat panel TV, five laptop computers, a PlayStation 3 video game system, a PlayStation 4 videogame system and a JBL sound bar from the front room and a bedroom.
The value of the items taken totaled more than $2,500.
The manager of an apartment complex in the 7400 block of Jackson Boulevard contacted police on Jan. 7 to report that someone had cut the keyed padlock to the boiler room and removed several items.
According to the police report, the burglary took place between 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 6 and 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 7. The manager said she’d affixed the padlock to the door when she left the prior day. When she returned, the lock was missing from the door.
Missing from the boiler room were a set of golf clubs, an orange bike, three new kitchen faucets, two ceiling fans, a black suitcase with orange trim and a cordless drill. The total loss was valued at about $1,000.
Lost credit card racks up charges
A River Forest man contacted Forest Park police on Jan. 7 to report that he’d lost his Visa credit card and someone had been racking up charges on it since that time.
The victim stated the card must have fallen out of his pocket as he left a restaurant in the 300 block of Harlem Avenue about 6 p.m.
By 8 p.m., the victim learned the card had been used three time at the BP gas station at 7204 Washington St. in the amount of $1. It was then used at a tobacco shop on Harlem Avenue for $21 and at Walmart, 1300 Desplaines Ave. to make a $611 purchase.
While the victim was on the phone with the credit card company to cancel it, he learned that at 8:10 p.m. the offenders were at Sears at the North Riverside Park Mall attempting to make a purchase.
Counterfeit bills
Police responded to the currency exchange at 7207 Roosevelt Road on Jan. 5 about 3 p.m. after an employee reported that a man tried to use a counterfeit $100 bill and was angry when she wouldn’t return it to him.
The customer told police he’d gotten the bill as part of a $500 lottery payout the week earlier at a local grocery store. Police seized the counterfeit bill.
Police also seized a counterfeit $100 bill during a traffic stop on Jan. 4 in the 7200 block of Roosevelt Road.
An officer conducting registration checks learned that the driver of a 2000 Cadillac had an active warrant for his arrest related to a Forest Park battery case. The driver went into the currency exchange at 7207 Roosevelt Road and was arrested after returning to his vehicle in the parking lot.
While conducting an inventory of the driver’s property, the officer found a counterfeit $100 bill, which he said he received from his girlfriend’s friend months ago. The bill was inventoried for evidence.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, Dec. 31, 2016 to Jan. 8, 2017 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
