A 58-year-old Forest Park woman was shopping at the Forest Park Bed Bath & Beyond location, 215 S. Harlem Ave., the afternoon of Dec. 28, only to discover that, someone stole her white 2015 Toyota Prius’ catalytic converter while she was inside.
The victim said she arrived at the store at around 3:30 p.m. and parked her car in the store’s parking lot. She said another customer alerted her of the theft. The victim went outside to confirm it.
According to the store’s security footage, a grey Infiniti Sedan pulled into the parking lot at 4:05 p.m. It pulled up right next to the victim’s car. A man exited the Infiniti, removed the Prius’ catalytic converter, and got back into the Infiniti. The suspect’s car was last seen heading north on Harlem Avenue.
While the security footage captured enough detail to suggest that the suspect’s car had an Illinois license plate, it couldn’t capture the license plate number in detail.
Stolen phone
A man who dozed off while charging a phone at a McDonalds at 420 Desplaines Ave. woke up to find his phone missing.
The victim said he went into the restaurant on Dec. 30 at around noon. He said he fell asleep while charging the phone. At one point, he woke up to see a woman try to charge her own phone using this same outlet.
When the victim woke up at around 1:02 p.m., the phone was gone. The victim said that he attempted to call the phone number using a friend’s phone, but no one picked up.
The responding police officer tried to call the phone as well, to no avail. The officer tried to retrieve the store’s security footage, but because the manager was unavailable, he couldn’t do it at the time of the report. A canvass of the area didn’t net any results.
While the victim was originally interested in pressing charges, he ultimately decided that he just wanted the phone back.
Motor vehicle thefts
The last day of 2022 saw two attempts to steal Hyundai’s – but only one was successful.
A blue 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe was stolen from in front of a home at the 1000 block of Circle Avenue. The victim parked the car at around 12:30 a.m. and discovered the theft at 10:35 a.m. He said he still had his car keys. Police investigation found broken glass along the curb where the Santa Fe was parked.
Later that day, the owner of a silver 2021 Hyundai Sonata parked her car in the parking lot of her apartment building on the 1000 block of Lathrop Avenue. About an hour later, the victim’s neighbor spotted an unknown man getting out of Sonata from the front driver’s side seat and get into a small, gray four-door sedan. The sedan then drove off, heading east on Harvard Avenue.
A police examination found that one of the windows was broken but didn’t elaborate. They also found a paper with dried red stains left near the driver’s side tire. The Sonata’s steering column wasn’t damaged.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, Dec. 26-31, 2022, 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
