A woman came to the police department Dec. 18 around 5 p.m. to report someone entering her Harlem Avenue residence without her consent. She told police that she noticed belongings missing from her residence, where she lives with her child, including a blank check book and the kid’s clothes and homework. She told police that her downstairs neighbors are working with her ex-husband to harass her and broke in by picking the lock.
Police reported that the woman was charged earlier in the day for battering her neighbor with an extension cord. That morning, she told police that her new neighbors were entering her apartment and taking things. When one of the neighbors knocked on her door, the woman asked him to leave and, when he didn’t, hit him with an extension cord on his arm and attempted to force him down the stairs.
Fleeing police
While on patrol Dec. 16, police got a hit on a vehicle traveling down Harlem Avenue that was wanted out of Lansing for aggravated fleeing. Backup officers came to help surround the vehicle, which disregarded their sirens, pulled an illegal U-turn and fled at least at 70 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone before getting on I-290 and escaping Forest Park police. Later that day, Chicago police reported that they had two people in custody matching the description. Forest Park police released the car’s passenger and took the driver into custody, where he was charged with aggravated fleeing, operating an uninsured vehicle, and having a suspended or revoked license.
Underage tobacco sale
On Dec. 17, during the Forest Park Police Department’s first round of the Illinois Tobacco Compliance Enforcement Program’s 2024-2025 compliance checks, an 18-year-old entered Joe’s Mini-Mart and asked for Swisher cigars. The clerk didn’t ask him for identification and was issued a citation for violating the village ordinance that restricts selling tobacco products to those under 21.
Trailer theft
On Dec. 18, an employee who works at Karol Trucking called the Forest Park Police Department to report that their trailer was stolen, according to the police report. The employee told police that the trailer was docked Dec. 11 at 7500 Roosevelt Road for unloading. When the employee was notified that the trailer had been unloaded, they returned to find it was no longer on the property. The employee tracked the trailer’s GPS to Colorado and discovered that another logistics company took it by mistake – something the employee said isn’t unusual during busy shipping times. They returned the trailer two days later, but before the driver could pick it up, it went missing again and has been tracked covering several states. No one has been charged.
Assisting Berwyn police
Police responded to the intersection of 18th and Home in Berwyn Dec. 18 to help with an officer-involved shooting. A man told police that the offender was in his basement and shot at him multiple times, hitting his dog, according to the police report. Police found the dog’s body in the backyard, officials said. Dispatch told Forest Park police that Berwyn officers barricaded the offender in the backyard of 1814 Home. Berwyn police took over the scene, and no one has been charged through the Forest Park Police Department.
These items were obtained from Forest Park Police Department reports dated Dec. 16 through Dec. 18 and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in these reports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large, and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.