North Riverside police have charged Chicago resident Aaron L. Jones with two counts of burglary after he allegedly broke into two cellphone store kiosks at the North Riverside Park Mall, where he was formerly employed at another store.
Police apprehended Jones at about 11:30 p.m. on June 21, after someone called to report an attempted burglary at the T-Mobile kiosk on the lower level of the mall. The caller stated that a man wearing beige shorts and carrying a black backpack had attempted to break into the kiosk and was last seen running and getting into a blue Dodge Durango.
A North Riverside officer stopped the vehicle in the east parking lot. Jones, who was driving the Durango, reportedly told police he was just playing a prank on friends that worked at the kiosk.
During the overnight hours of June 20-21, someone had burglarized the T-Mobile kiosk on the upper level of the mall, making off with 18 cellphones valued at more than $8,000.
Jones told police he knew about that incident and wanted to make it look like the lower level kiosk had been burglarized, for a prank. He reportedly told police he never intended to steal phones from the kiosk.
Police later recovered a tire iron in the lower level parking lot where the Durango had been parked. Surveillance footage allegedly showed Jones using the tire iron to pry off the lock of the kiosk. The same method had been used in the other kiosk break-in, police said.
On June 19, Jones reportedly quit his job at a hat store in the mall after he and two other employees were questioned by the store manager about the theft of almost $1,300 on June 16. All three employees denied knowing about the theft.
In addition to burglary, Jones was also charged with two counts of criminal damage to property.
At a hearing on June 23, a Cook County judge set Jones’ bond at $30,000. As of June 29, he was being held at Cook County Jail.
Gasoline spill in Brookfield
Maple Avenue in Brookfield between Monroe Avenue and the memorial Circle was closed to traffic on the morning of June 29 for about two hours after 80 to 100 gallons of gasoline spilled from a pump at the Citgo station, 3419 Maple Ave., onto the pavement.
According to Fire Chief Patrick Lenzi, an attendant at the gas station notified the fire department that fuel was spilling from one of the pumps at about 5:20 a.m., about 10 minutes after turning on the pumps for the morning.
Brookfield firefighters poured an emulsifier into the sewer to neutralize the gasoline’s volatility and then monitored four sewers from the circle to Monroe Avenue, checking the meters for oxygen content.
Officials from both the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency were called to the scene, said Lenzi. Eventually, the MWRD gave the OK to flush the sewer system with 4,000 gallons of water.
A man who identified himself as the owner of the gas station told the Landmark that he did not know whether the pump had been damaged by someone tampering with it.
In May, Brookfield police reported two separate incidents where pumps at that Citgo station had been tampered with and gasoline stolen.
Vehicle burglaries
Brookfield police say they expect to petition two teenagers to Cook County Juvenile Court in connection with a recent rash of vehicle break-ins on the far south end of the village.
On June 20, police questioned two suspects, a boy and a girl, about vehicle burglaries that occurred in the vicinity of the 8900 block of Gerritsen Avenue and the 4400 and 4500 blocks on Sunnyside Avenue.
Police also reported recovering a bag containing items including headphones, an iPod, a radio face plate, a cellphone charger, USB cables among other things.
Brookfield police reported that during the overnight hours of June 27-28, there were five vehicle break-ins in the 3600 block of Blanchan Avenue. Three of the vehicles were unlocked and nothing appeared to be missing from two of the vehicles. However, one of the unlocked vehicles suffered a broken glove box handle, a scratched quarter panel and a dent near the gas cap door. The third unlocked vehicle had a car radio and iPod removed.
Two of the vehicles had their side windows shattered in order to gain entry. A car radio was taken from one of the vehicles, while a multi-meter was taken from a tool bag inside the other.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, June 20-29, 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
