Police were able to recover a stolen red 2020 Kia Sportage, but not before the 23-year-old Chicago woman who was driving the car crashed it into a curb.

The victim saw thieves drive his vehicle away on Sept. 2 around 12:36 a.m. A patrol car spotted the vehicle heading south on Elgin Avenue, a one-way northbound street, then turning east on Washington Boulevard and continuing south on Harlem Avenue. 

As the police gave chase, the car kept traveling south until it hit the curb at the Shell gas station near the Harlem Avenue/Roosevelt Road intersection. They saw the woman, who was wearing a ski mask, get out of the driver’s side seat and run to the nearby alley, while a man, who wore black clothing, got out of the passenger’s side seat and ran into the parking lot of the nearby McDonald’s location. 

The officers chased the driver, eventually catching her at the 1200 block of Maple Avenue. The passenger ran into the getaway car, a black 2020 Hyundai SUV. While the officers gave chase, they eventually lost the Hyundai, which was last seen in Oak Park, driving east on Jackson Boulevard. 

When questioned by the police, the woman claimed that the man was the driver, and that he picked her up from one of the Blue Line CTA stations. She claimed that the steering column was already damaged when she got in. The woman also claimed that she was in the rear driver’s seat, and that the force of the crash threw her into the driver’s seat.

The woman was charged with one count of motor vehicle theft and one count of fleeing the police officer. 

Retail theft

Forest Park police officers intercepted a shoplifter as she drove away from the Walmart store, though they ended up charging her only for a suspended driver’s license.

The store’s security camera footage showed that, on Sept. 23 at 4:54 p.m., a 34-year-old Chicago woman took an HP laptop, place it in a bag and leave the store without paying. She got into a rental black Hyundai Tucson and drove off with a passenger. 

The police officers spotted the Hyundai on the 7500 block of Jackson Boulevard and curbed it at the nearby 600 block of Thomas Avenue. They spotted the laptop matching the stolen laptop’s descriptions lying on the floor of the passenger side seat. The woman and her passenger denied stealing the laptop, but gave conflicting stories about how it ended up in the car.

Walmart didn’t press charges for stealing the laptop. During the traffic stop, the officers discovered that the woman’s driver’s license was suspended and cited her for driving on a suspended license. Since the passenger did have a valid driver’s license, the Hyundai was turned over to him.

Stolen rideshare vehicle

A woman who is behind on payments for a red 2023 Hyundai Kona thought that her car was being towed away — only to discover it was stolen.

The victim has been leasing the car from the Lyft rideshare platform. On Sept. 20, around 10:40 p.m., the victim’s mother heard what she thought was a tow truck. At first, the victim assumed Lyft towed the Hyundai, but after she reached out to the rideshare company, they told her they didn’t tow the car.

The victim reached out to several local towing companies, but none of them had the car. The police didn’t have any towing companies report repossession. 

The Hyundai has been flagged as stolen.

Burglary

A man who works nights came home on Sept. 23 at 8:07 a.m. to find his Desplaines Avenue apartment robbed. 

The victim said that when he left home around 11:47 p.m., he locked the door. When he arrived home from work, he found that his PlayStation 5 gaming console, two PlayStation controllers, an HDMI cord, two charging cords and a personal debit card were missing. 

The victim said his front door was still locked when he returned home, but his balcony screen door was left open. The police officers found no sign of forced entry.

The victim was advised to contact Sony and Chase to try to track his console and debit card, respectively.

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, Sept. 21-30, 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