Before 11 a.m. on July 26, police were dispatched to Macho’s Grill, 7300 Roosevelt Road, for a battery. A waitress there told police that a man, woman and two kids came to the restaurant, and she greeted them and offered them drinks. Shortly after delivering the drinks, the man said they were unsatisfied and that they were leaving. The woman and children left and, as the man walked toward the counter to pay, he threw horchata at the waitress. The incident was captured on video surveillance, which also got a picture of the black pick-up truck’s license plate as the family drove off. 

Burglary 

Police were dispatched to a residence in the 1000 block of Des Plaines Ave. after 8 a.m. on July 24 for a burglary. The property owner told police that his last tenant moved out a month before, and he arrived at the property that day to find an open window and water in the upstairs bathtub. He reported that no items were missing from the residence but wished to sign complaints if an offender is located. 

Battery 

Police responded to 400 Harlem Ave. on July 24, where a man said he was involved in a verbal altercation with an unknown offender on the Pace bus. The man allegedly started punching him in the face. The bus driver confirmed the interaction and said the offender exited the bus and fled north down Harlem. The victim said he’d sign complaints if the offending man was located. 

Assisting police 

Around 8 a.m. on July 23, an off-duty Forest Park police officer was in a semi-marked squad car, stopped at a red light at St. Charles Road and Elizabeth Street in Lombard, when he heard a car crash. He reported that a Lombard village vehicle appeared to have T-boned an SUV. The police officer called in the crash, activated his car’s lights, and approached the crash site, according to the police report. The driver of the village vehicle was out of the pickup truck, and the driver of the SUV told police he was OK but couldn’t open the car door. Forest Park police left the scene after Lombard police and an ambulance arrived.  

Criminal damage to property  

The evening of July 21, police responded to Forest Park Baptist Church, 133 Harlem Ave. after someone saw through surveillance cameras that a man was stealing downspouts and damaging landscaping bricks. Police found the man on church property and detained him. They later found he had tried to pry open one of the church’s doors, that the door frame was cracked and the lock was broken off — a total damage of $550 to church property. Police discovered him to have three warrants for his arrest out of Cook County, which he was arrested for, and charged with criminal damage to property.  

DUI 

While police were driving in the 7300 block of Madison Street just before midnight on July 18, a pedestrian waved them down and said they saw an extremely intoxicated man get in the driver’s seat of a vehicle. While the man was talking with police, the car pulled out of a parking space. Police followed the car as it wove between lanes, went 8 miles per hour over the speed limit and, at Franklin and Circle, turned into the opposite lane of traffic and nearly hit the curb and a landscape planter. Police pulled over the driver, who police reported to have slurred speech and smell of alcohol. The man said he was coming home from Robert’s Westside and, when police asked him to get out of the car, he was unsteady, swayed and lost his balance. Though he refused to complete standardized field sobriety tests, police took the man into custody and charged with a DUI, speeding and improper lane usage.  

Reckless driving 

The afternoon of July 17, police were monitoring a funeral traveling through town, from Harlem to Roosevelt, then the 800 block of Des Plaines Ave. to the Forest Home Cemetery entrance. While monitoring the funeral, police saw cars in the procession drive recklessly, take up multiple lanes, swerve into oncoming traffic, and passengers hang out open windows. Police sent citations to drivers of five vehicles who violated village ordinance. 

These items were obtained from Forest Park Police Department reports dated July 17 through July 26 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.