The victim of an attack and his assailant were arrested after police found both had outstanding warrants for arrests.

The victim, a 52-year-old Maywood man, said that on Jan. 8 at around 8:41 p.m., he was locking his bike at the Roosevelt Road Dollar Tree when a 22-year-old Maywood man approached him, demanding that he give him money. The victim said he had no cash on him and headed into the store. The 22-year-old followed the victim and kicked him in the legs, causing the victim to fall. The younger man swung his fists at the victim, but didn’t actually hit him. The victim got up and ran into the store, and saw the assailant standing outside.

The victim took out his phone, and the assailant left. But the younger man came back a short time later with his hand in his pocket – which the victim saw as him implying that he was reaching for a gun. 

The police found the assailant at the 1100 block of Lathrop Avenue, walking with a full Walmart shopping cart. He claimed that the victim tried to steal belongings from his shopping cart. 

While looking up the two men’s backgrounds, the police discovered that both had active arrest warrants, so they arrested both of them. The 22-year-old man was charged with one count of battery. 

Retail Theft

A 75-year-old Chicago man who was caught shoplifting from the Forest Park Walmart multiple times returned Jan. 8 at 5:51 p.m.

According to the employee accounts and the store security footage, the shoplifter took a shirt, two belts, two coats, a pair of socks and a pair of overalls worth $341. When confronted by the police, he acknowledged that he had no intention of paying for any of those items, but said that he didn’t wish to talk about it any further.

Because he been caught several times before, Walmart pressed charges. While the county approved the retail theft charge, it didn’t sign off on the burglary charge. 

The man was released pending trial. 

Possible identity theft

A Forest Park man called the police because he was a worried that a woman who claimed to represent the Rushmore Energy power supply company was trying to use his personal information to steal his identity.

The man said that the woman came to his building Jan. 9 at around 2:40 p.m. She claimed that she wanted to help him to lower his electric bill. During the conversation, he showed the woman a copy of his most recent utility bill and gave her his full name, date of birth and the last four digits of his Social Security numbers.

The man suspected something was amiss when he saw that his phone sent a picture of the utility bill to an unknown number. He said that he never sent that picture to anyone.

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, Jan. 8-9, 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