Crime

CRIME Ancient dagger allegedly stolen from vacation rental

A man who decided to empty the priceless contents of a safe deposit box onto the dining room table of an apartment rental, then leave the rental with the items packed in a grocery bag and hidden under a backpack, told police all the items were missing after he returned from a visit with his son.

The bizarre incident was reported to police around 5:45 p.m. on Dec. 25 by a 75-yearold man who said he was renting a unit in the 300 block of Circle Avenue during the holiday season. For unknown reasons, the man emptied several precious items from his safe deposit box on Dec. 24 and left to visit his son.

Among the items left in the grocery bag were family birth certificates, baptismal certificates, wedding documents, a Ziploc bag full of costume jewelry, a 2-inch brass paperweight from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and a 1,000-year-old dagger and brass sheath.

The man said he was in Chicago most of the day on Dec. 24 and noticed the items were missing at 8:30 a.m. the following day.

The Airbnb host said their cleaning person looked for the items but did not find them.

Plenty of Fish scam involves bitcoin

A man claiming to be a cryptocurrency broker allegedly scammed a woman out of thousands of dollars after meeting her on the dating site Plenty of Fish.

The woman told Forest Park police that she began communicating with the man on Nov. 15 and that she was initially convinced to buy $1,000 in Bitcoin and watch its value grow, leading to a second, $7,000 investment.

Later, the crypto broker told the woman he was looking for a new employee at his office and convinced her to complete an online application that included her social security number, home address and phone number. Shortly thereafter, the woman received a $2,000 cashier’s check in the mail and was told to cash it at a grocery store and send the man the money. A grocery store and bank both declined to cash the check.

And in a final suspicious incident, after being told to accept payments through a mobile banking app, the woman said she started receiving messages from people who claimed they never received the “magic mushrooms” they had purchased and wanted their money back. The woman refunded four people and told them not to contact the man she had met on Plenty of Fish as she now believed he was running some kind of scam.

At that point, the woman tried to withdraw the money in her online account, now totaling more than $40,000, but was unable to do so.

Drive-by spraying leaves man covered in ‘unknown substance’

A car rolled up and someone apparently sprayed a fire extinguisher at a 69-year-old man as he walked to the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line station at 711 Desplaines Ave. just after midnight on Saturday, Dec. 18.

A Forest Park Police Department report indicates that a light-colored sedan with heavily tinted windows approached the man as he walked in the 700 block of Desplaines and a young man in the vehicle sprayed him with “an unknown substance.” After the drive-by spraying, the occupants of the vehicle began to laugh and the car sped away.

The man who was sprayed was covered in a “white powder-like substance” that he believed came from a fire extinguisher. He refused medical treatment.

Man wreaks havoc at pair of bars

A 26-year-old Elmwood Park man was arrested after making a scene at a pair of Madison Street bars late on the night of Dec. 20 and early the following day.

Forest Park police were initially notified that a brewing fight had dissipated between two customers in the 7400 block of Madison but were called back to the bar less than an hour later when one of the customers began throwing barstools and breaking things. The man was sent on his way.

Officers then ran the man’s name through a criminal database, discovered a warrant for his arrest from a different jurisdiction and followed him into a second bar, also in the 7400 block of Madison. The man had apparently also been previously trespassed from that location and warned not to return.

When a bartender asked the man to leave early on the morning of Dec. 21, he allegedly grabbed a pint glass and threw it at her, hitting her in the face and upper chest, then ran out the back door.

Officers eventually arrested the man in the 300 block of Burkhardt Court. He was charged with battery, resisting arrest and criminal trespassing.

Soup, fruit thrown on ground

Someone threw chicken noodle soup, an orange and some kind of red or orange liquid on a doormat in the 500 block of Desplaines Avenue just before midnight on Dec. 27.

The scene was photographed and processed for evidence.

Man steals bottles of booze

Thursday, Dec. 23.

Forest Park police were dispatched to the store in the 7200 block of Madison a little after noon and were told a man concealed several bottles of alcohol and fled the building without paying.

Officers located the man several blocks away and asked him if he had taken any bottles from the store. The suspect then “readily admitted” to taking five bottles, according to a police report, and showed officers five vodka bottles concealed inside his jacket and pant leg.

The bottles were brought back to the store and the man was “no longer welcome” to return.

Three pairs of pants disappear

Someone who ordered three pairs of pants from an online retailer reported that the pants were stolen after being delivered on Christmas Eve.

A delivery company reportedly delivered the pants to the back door of a home in the 7200 block of Roosevelt Road on Dec. 24 but the person who ordered the pants said there is no back door at that location. They were reported missing on Dec. 30.

The pants have a retail value of $127.

No payment for no-chip manicures

Three women who received fresh no-chip manicures on Christmas Eve fled from the salon without paying for the service.

The trio left the salon in the 1200 block of Harlem Avenue around 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 24 after getting $135 worth of work done on their nails, according to a police report. All three left in a silver Nissan Maxima that was not immediately located.

A salon employee said surveillance video would be shared with the police.

Bullet discovered New Year’s Day

A resident called the Forest Park police on the morning of Jan. 1 to direct officers to a bullet in the wall of their home.

Officers found what appeared to be a 9-millimeter bullet in the west facing wall of a home in the 400 block of Thomas Avenue around 9 a.m. on New Year’s Day. The resident did not report hearing anything suspicious the previous night.

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Forest Park Police Department, Dec. 20 to Jan. 2, 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 Andy Viano

CATALYTIC

e s continue

from page 1

of Roosevelt Road was watching security camera footage early on the morning of Dec. 18 when they noticed several suspicious people entering the lot and called 911. As police arrived, one of the men yelled “run” and three people attempted to flee. Two of them — Danny L. Allen, 28, of Chicago, and Darius J. Madison, 31, of Chicago — were arrested and have been charged with felony burglary. Both men denied any role in the thefts the previous night.

When the men were arrested, police also recovered a litany of tools of the trade, including saws, blades and jacks. The video footage allegedly showed the men jacking up several vehicles, then making multiple trips back and forth to the lot’s fence, where officers also discovered several catalytic converters that had already been removed.

Forest Park Chief of Police Ken Gross said the pace of catalytic converter thefts has been “cyclical” throughout his career, but in a less than two week stretch starting Dec. 20, Forest Park police responded to at least five separate reported thefts, and that doesn’t include the brazen 17-converter heist pulled off at the cab company Dec. 17.

Police departments across the country are responding to more and more catalytic converter thefts because of the trace amounts of precious metals — including platinum, palladium and rhodium —- that they contain. Scrappers are paying top dollar for the metals as the global market spikes, and while there are no scrap yards in Forest Park, there are plenty in the surrounding area. According to the Associated Press, a single catalytic converter can fetch between $50 and $300.

Thieves are able to steal the converters fairly quickly, as well, typically using a saw or other device to cut them off the vehicle’s exhaust system.

In response, Gross said residents should try and park in a garage, if possible, and pay attention to any unusual sawing or cutting sounds they hear, especially in the middle of the night, when most thefts are occurring. Gross said several companies have also begun marketing catalytic converter protection devices that are available for purchase online, although they may need to be installed by a mechanic.