Around 1 p.m. on July 16, police were dispatched to Walmart on Roosevelt Road after someone called to report an employee who was unconscious and not breathing. Witnesses said the woman was complaining about not feeling well and was going to go home from work early, then they saw her fall to the ground. An ambulance took the woman to Loyola Hospital and, while in route, she went into cardiac arrest. When the woman arrived at the hospital around 3 p.m., she was pronounced dead.
Private property accident
The morning of July 13, a man reported to police that, for the past couple years, cars and commercial trucks at Ninety-Nine Haus Balloons on Madison Street have hit his property next door. Most recently on July 11, he saw on surveillance footage that an employee hit the corner of his garage, resulting in a small dent. He said he reported to police in 2023 that the business’ trucks damaged his fence, which he had to take down. Police spoke with someone from Ninety-Nine Haus Balloons, who said she’d tell employees to be more careful. No one was charged at the time of the report.
Accident
On July 15 before 5 a.m., police responded to 1000 Harlem Ave. There, a woman who was bleeding from her arm and shoulder said she was hit by a car. The driver said he was driving south on Harlem when the woman ran into the street. He said he tried to avoid her but didn’t have enough time. Police reported damage to the front of the car and its windshield. A witness three cars behind the offending driver corroborated his story. Paramedics took the woman to Loyola Hospital and police found she was reported to be missing in May out of Riverdale.
Theft
On July 15, a man called police to report that he tied his dog to a pole near the CTA Blue Line and his friend gave him a ride to Target in Oak Park for water and dog food. When he returned, his dog was gone. The man said the dog is a 50-pound brown pitbull with a pink collar and wants to sign complaints if the dog was stolen.
Robbery
Police were dispatched to the CTA Blue Line station in Forest Park on July 15 for a possible armed robbery. At the station, a woman told police that a man punched and pushed her, then stole her phone and fled down Van Buren. Police canvassed the area and found a man matching the description, who started running toward the Maybrook Courthouse and attempted to hide near the Des Plaines River. When police returned to the scene, the victim and the man who called in the incident were gone. When police called and asked them to come identify the offender, the two became uncooperative and said they no longer wanted to sign complaints. Police did not recover a cell phone or weapon from the man. He was charged with two counts of resisting police and with two active warrants for domestic battery and resisting a peace officer.
Aggravated DUI
While on patrol after midnight on July 16, police saw a man standing next to a car on Madison Street, then walk into Mugsy’s Bar. Police ran the car’s plate and found the owner to have a suspended license for a DUI. Police waited for the man to come out of Mugsy’s, and he got in the car and drove away. Police pulled the man over and reported that he smelled of alcohol and cannabis, had slurred speech and glassy, watery eyes. Police searched the car and found an open bottle of tequila and a bag of cannabis. The man agreed to participate in standardized field sobriety tests, which showed signs of his inebriation, so he was taken into custody. He was charged with operating an uninsured car, having a suspended license, an aggravated DUI for driving with a suspended license, driving under the influence, having a blood alcohol content higher than .08, having open alcohol in the car, and possession of adult use cannabis in a motor vehicle.
Credit card fraud
On July 16, village Finance Director Letitia Olmsted forwarded police an email from Dacra Tech, the system the village uses for issuing and processing online payment for parking citations. The email said that “there was a discrepancy between [the village’s] fund transfer amount and [its] Dacra total of $38,725. A chargeback was initiated in June for a payment of $1,160 for 10 citations” which were fraudulent. According to police, the 10 citations were to the same vehicle that parking enforcement towed in early May because the car’s owner didn’t pay outstanding parking fines. Nob’s Towing told police that the car was released from their possession May 15. Police purged the transaction and changed status of the citations from paid to unpaid.
These items were obtained from Forest Park Police Department reports dated July 13 through July 16 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.