Police were dispatched to the 7-Eleven on Harlem Avenue for a retail theft on Jan. 5 around 11:30 p.m. The complainant said he saw a man take a smartwatch charger and pack of batteries without paying. Police located a subject matching the offender’s descriptions waiting outside the CTA Green Line Station at 1 S. Harlem Ave., but he entered the station when he saw police.
A CTA employee told police that the man jumped the turnstile, and police chased him up to the North end of the platform, where he stopped running. Police removed a kitchen knife from his hand and detained him. They recovered a stolen charger and box of batteries from his pockets, estimated to be worth about $43 together. Police also saw a foreign object in the man’s mouth, which they asked him to spit out to find a small Ziploc bag with suspected heroin in it. The stolen items were returned, and the man was charged with retail theft and possession of a controlled substance.
Retail theft
On Jan. 6 around 4:30 p.m., a Walgreens employee called police to report that they saw a woman take several products past the last point of purchase without paying. Police found the woman near Roosevelt and Maple with several Gatorades and packs of gum. She was detained and admitted to stealing the merchandise. Police found a baggie of suspected heroin on the woman, along with a glass pipe. The Walgreens store manager said he wanted to sign complaints against the woman. She was charged with retail theft, possession of a controlled substance and of drug paraphernalia, obstructing her identification and two in-state warrants.
Missing person
On Jan. 7, a woman called police to report that her brother failed to return to a Washington Street residence after walking to McDonald’s on Des Plaines. She said he has dementia and called her two hours earlier to say he was coming home but didn’t. Police located the man’s phone and found him disoriented and confused near Washington and Franklin. He was returned home.
Suspicious circumstances
On Jan. 8, police responded to a Circle Avenue residence after they got a call that shots were fired inside the building. At the scene, the caller told police he heard four gun shots about five minutes earlier, around 10 p.m., in a unit south of his. Police checked with residents in the units south of the callers, but they said they were OK and heard no gun shots.
These items were obtained from Forest Park Police Department reports dated Jan. 5 through Jan. 8 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.