A man called the Forest Park Walmart auto service department demanding supplies to treat a gunshot wound, and threatened to shoot up the store when an employee who picked up the phone refused to help him.
The man called the store on Oct. 15 at 2:40 p.m., demanding bandages and oxygenated water to treat a gunshot wound. When the employee said he wouldn’t do it, the caller said that he was part of “Mexican mafia” and threatened to shoot up the store.
Because the high volume of calls, the police weren’t able to find the exact phone number, but they narrowed it to the most likely number. The police were not able to track down the caller at the time of the report.
Armed robberies
Forest Park saw two unrelated armed robberies last week.
The first robbery took place on Oct. 18 and around 8:30 a.m. The victim parked his work truck near the intersection of Jackson Boulevard and Wilcox Street, and he was standing outside the truck, talking on the phone, when three men approached the truck and one of the men demanded his “stuff.” Worried that he would get beaten if he refused, the victim opened the truck. The men removed his work utilities scanning equipment and fled north, then headed east toward Desplaines Avenue.
The victim returned to work to get replacement equipment, and was told to make a police report because Chicago has seen a series of equipment thefts.
The second robbery happened on Oct. 21 at around 10:10 p.m. According to the victim and the security footage, victim stopped at Thorntons gas station to get gas when a men went up to the driver’s side window, put the gun to the victim’s head and demanded money. The robber took $450 from the victim and $400 from his passenger. The robber than asked them if they had gold necklaces. When the two said they didn’t, the robber fled.
The security footage showed the robber running west on Jackson Boulevard.
Burglaries from motor vehicles
Three burglaries from motor vehicles occurred in Forest Park over the past week.
On Oct. 17, at around 3:55 p.m., the victim drove her black 2018 Honda sedan to the Forest Park Planet Fitness location. She left her purse on the driver’s side seat, under a jacket. While the victim locked the doors, the windows were partially rolled down. When she came back around 5 p.m., she found that both the purse and the jacket were missing.
The witness said he saw a black Cadilac SUV pulled into the Planet Fitness parking lot, a man got out, reached through the window to open the door and grabbed the jacket and the purse. The witness said he didn’t get the license plate number, and Planet Fitness employees told the police officers that didn’t have access to security camera footage.
On Oct. 21 at 11 a.m., the owner of a 2015 Jeep Compass, which was parked on Marengo Avenue, discovered that someone ransacked her vehicle overnight and stole a MacBook laptop she kept there. The victim said she believed she locked the car, and there was no sign of forced entry.
On Oct. 22 at around 1 a.m., the owner of a red 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan parked his car at the 140 block of Circle Avenue. He said that he believed that he locked the vehicle. The following morning, the victim’s wife saw that the passenger’s side door was open and the contents of the glove box were scattered inside, but nothing was stolen.
While there was no physical damage to the car, the victim wasn’t able to start it.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, Oct. 15-22, 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
