A 49-year-old Hillside man allegedly threatened to kill an auto mechanic at the Walmart at 1300 Desplaines Ave. on the morning of Nov. 28.
The alleged offender arrived at the store’s automotive department at around 7 a.m. and asked for an oil change. The victim processed the request and went to help another customer. The man yelled at the victim, and the two allegedly got into an argument. The security cameras captured the alleged offender pulling out a pocketknife. The victim said that the Hillside man threatened to kill him, at which point the victim walked away and called the store manager.
When reached via text messages, the alleged offender acknowledged that he argued with the victim and pulled out a knife but claimed that it was in self-defense. He declined to come to the police station, saying that he didn’t have time.
The alleged offender was subsequently arrested and charged with one count of aggravated assault.
Burglary of church
A burglar broke into the St. Bernardine Catholic Church, 7246 Harrison St., sometime in the early morning of Nov. 28, stealing around $100 from the church collection boxes.
The church sacristan told police he entered the building at around 5:30 a.m. and discovered that the church back door was pried open from the inside, and the door window was broken. He and the church’s priest inspected the building and discovered that the three collection boxes were pried open.
Subsequent search revealed that a washroom window was broken in. The responding officer speculated that this was how the burglar got into the church. The burglar left footprints outside the window. The church maintenance engineer planned to review the security camera footage, but that information wasn’t available at the time of the report.
Recovered stolen vehicle
A black 2014 Hyundai sedan parked on the 800 block of Ferdinand Avenue was recovered in Berkeley on Dec. 4 at around 3:45 p.m.
The victim received a call from his son-in-law, who told him that he got a call from Berkeley police saying that the vehicle was found in the village, on the 1400 block of Taft Ave., with its rear driver’s side window broken. The victim last saw the vehicle at around 2 p.m. He checked the parking spot and saw that the vehicle was missing, with broken glass scattered nearby.
The vehicle was towed to Powers Towing, of Hillside.
Serial tire slashings
Two cars parked at 210 Circle Ave. had their tires slashed sometime on the night of Dec. 4 – on the same block that had previously seen five tire slashings since Oct. 21.
On Nov. 23, the owner of a purple 2018 Toyota RAV4 discovered some tires were slashed. On Nov. 27, someone slashed all four tires of a 2018 Ford sedan and a 2014 Chevrolet Impala overnight. Both incidents took place at the 200 block of Circle Ave.
This time around, a grey 2016 Honda sedan and grey 2019 Jeep Cherokee had their tires slashed overnight. In both instances, both the front and the rear tires of the driver’s side of the vehicles was slashed. Police have been reviewing security footage from a camera that was put up in response to the earlier tire slashings, but the results weren’t available at the time of the report.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, Nov 28-Dec 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 Igor Studenkov
