A woman walking to a friend’s house reported being approached at the corner of Marengo Avenue and Lexington Street at around 3:30 a.m. by a man with a gun who said, ‘Gimme all you got, or you’re gonna get hurt.” He took about $185 from her pocket and fled southbound on Marengo.

Man chases woman around car in parking lot

Police heard loud yelling at the Forest Park parking lot near Circle Avenue and Madison Street on March 24 at 12:25 a.m. and saw a man chasing a woman around a vehicle and yelling at her. The security guard from Forest Park Tap Room was telling the man to keep it down and trying to intervene when police arrived.

The reporting officer ordered the man to stop chasing the woman to no avail. The officer told the man at least once more to stop, at which point the man pushed the officer in the chest with both hands.

The officer grabbed the man, ordered him to put his hands behind his back, and arrested him for battery to a police officer. At the station, the subject said he and the woman were in a verbal altercation, but it never got physical. He said he hadn’t meant to push the officer. He said he merely wanted to “bogart [his] way past” the officer.

While talking to everyone else involved, it came to light that the woman who’d been chased by the man had provided an alias to hide the fact that she had warrants in Wisconsin, Indiana and DuPage County.

Woman drinking beer in front of library

A woman known to the reporting officer “from numerous previous contacts” was stopped in front of the Forest Park Public Library, 7555 Jackson Blvd., for drinking a 12 oz. Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in a can on March 24 at 11 a.m. She was given a local ordinance citation for an open container.

Car window smashed; bank bags stolen

On March 23 at 7:23 a.m., police responded to a resident on the 1000 block of Dunlop Avenue who discovered an unknown person had broken her passenger side window and had removed two empty bank bags from the passenger seat. A large rock and hammer were found outside the vehicle and the passenger door looked like someone had tried to pry it open.

CTA train defaced

A CTA train was defaced with graffiti on March 27 at 711 Desplaines Ave. An employee called police to report that around 3 a.m. she discovered the damage, which was done by unknown offender(s).

Deck chair found near window

Officers responded to the 200 block of Circle Avenue on March 27 at 7:45 a.m. to talk to the homeowner about an attempted residential burglary. The homeowner said the gate to her back yard was closed at 10:30 p.m. the previous night, but when she exited her house in the morning the gate was open and a chair, which had been removed from the deck in her yard, had been placed under her bedroom window.

Police did not observe any damage to the window screen, and there were no visible signs of fingerprints in the undisturbed dirt along the windowsill and frame. Officers also checked the back door and adjacent windows and saw no signs of attempted entry. They recommended installing cameras and motion lights as well as securing the deck chairs with a cable lock as added protection. They also said they would do extra patrols of the area and her home in the evenings.

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, March 22-28, 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 Maria Maxham