Brookfield resident Stephen B. Stevkov, 34, is in Cook County Jail, held on $25,000 bond and awaiting a court hearing after he was charged with strong-arm robbery and aggravated battery after allegedly trying to steal three bottles of liquor from Tony’s Finer Foods, 7401 W. 25th St. in North Riverside on Dec. 6.
According to the police report, a store manager saw Stevkov place two bottles of vodka and a bottle of bourbon in a shopping cart and then walk the cart toward the bathrooms in the store.
Believing Stevkov was acting suspiciously, the manager alerted two other employees and the three of them waited at the front of the store for Stevkov to leave. Stevkov reportedly left the store without buying anything, but the employees noticed a bulge in Stevkov’s coat.
Once he was outside, the employees stopped him and asked for a receipt. Stevkov then allegedly began swinging his fists at the store employees, who grabbed him. During the struggle, Stevkov allegedly bit one of the employees in the arm, causing it to start bleeding. The employee was treated at a local hospital for his injury.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office approved the two felony charges against Stevkov.
Purse snatching
A 55-year-old Cicero woman told North Riverside police on Dec. 6 that while she was waiting at the bus stop outside the North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road, about 8 p.m., two men grabbed her black purse, ripped it from her hands and fled eastbound through the parking lot. The purse contained identification and credit cards, police said.
About an hour later, Berwyn police detained two men fitting the description the woman gave police, but the victim did not identify them as the men who took her purse and they were released.
Burglary
North Riverside police are looking for two suspects involved in the burglary of a cellphone store during the early morning hours of Dec. 8.
Burglar alarms went off about 2 a.m. when two men forced their way into Boost Mobile, 1750 Harlem Ave., by breaking a window on the west side of the store. One of the men forced open a door to a back room while the other searched the service area before they left with what appeared to be a small plastic shopping bag, according to police, who reviewed surveillance footage.
All that was reported missing from the store was one Boost ZTE Warp cellphone, according to police.
Police in North Riverside reported that three residences were burglarized last week, all in the northeast section of the village.
Two of the burglaries, one in the 2300 block of Park Avenue and one in the 2400 block of Forest Avenue, occurred on Dec. 6.
Whoever tried to break into the home on Park Avenue apparently failed to gain entry, but the homeowner reported finding the screen to a bedroom window removed and placed on the ground outside. One pane of that double-pane window was also broken and a small container previously on the interior window sill had been knocked to the ground.
Nothing appears to have been taken from the house on Forest Avenue, either, although it appears that the offender did make his way inside the home by breaking out a basement window on the north side of the building.
The offender appears to have been scared off by the homeowner who arrived home when the offender was still in the house. The homeowner reported hearing a strange noise from the basement and police found footprints going away from a second basement window that had been broken out.
On Dec. 8 the owner of a home in the 2400 block of Park Avenue reported that her house had been broken into for the second time in a week. According to the report, a table saw and drill were missing from the home.
A resident of the 4200 block of Arthur Avenue, Brookfield, reported on Dec. 5 that someone entered his home by breaking a bedroom window and removed a 54-inch flat-panel TV, a home theater system, $400 in cash and coins, and a coffeemaker.
Police also reported that whoever broke into the house sprayed bleach in the areas of the home where property had been removed.
Zoo worker charged with theft
A 19-year-old admissions booth worker at the Brookfield Zoo was charged on Dec. 10 with misdemeanor theft after she reportedly stole $147.50 by voiding valid transactions and then removing cash from the till.
Video surveillance footage from a camera inside the admissions booth reportedly showed Nicolette A. Martinu, of Oak Lawn, voiding transactions and taking money from the register on three occasions on Dec. 3.
Zoo police reported the incidents to Riverside police, who processed the arrest.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Dec. 5-12, 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 Bob Uphues
