Riverside police arrested a Franklin Park woman on two counts of driving under the influence, driving without insurance, improper lane usage and driving in the wrong lane.
Riverside police stopped her 2000 Volkswagen around 4 a.m. on Jan. 27 after officers saw the car swerving on the 3600 block of Harlem Avenue. The 25-year-old failed several field sobriety tests, and a Breathalyzer test pegged her blood-alcohol content at .144, almost twice the legal limit of .08.
The driver told officers she had been drinking in nearby Darien, didn’t do anything wrong and was headed to a White Castle in Berwyn to “sober up.”
“Numerous avenues are available to those who chose to drink to get home safely such as Uber and Lyft,” Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said in a press release. “Driving around to sober up is not one of them.”
Riverside police arrested a 34-year-old Forest View man for driving under the influence after officers spotted his silver 2003 Nissan swerving near Harlem and Ogden avenues around 4 a.m. on Jan. 23. The 34-year-old failed several field sobriety tests and began arguing with officers and recording conversations with his cellphone at police headquarters. He was eventually released on bond and took a taxi cab home.
Lockdown drill
Riverside school District 96 officials and police officers held a district-wide safety lockdown drill on Jan. 25 to help prepare for an “intruder incident.” The drill involved officers observing as district employees went room to room during the exercise, checking rooms for “proper procedures” according to Sgt. Leo Kotor.
“The safety of our students is our number one concern,” Superintendent Martha Ryan-Toye said.
Blackmail message
A 74-year-old Riverside man told police he got a suspicious email on the evening of Jan. 24. The message told the man to send Bitcoins, an anonymous, digital currency, or the sender would tell the man’s family he “has deceived them.” The man contacted Comcast about the message and was told it came from the Netherlands.
Hit-and-run
A 50-year-old Riverside man told police on Jan. 26 that someone hit his 2010 Nissan SUV while the car was parked outside his home on Northgate Road. The accident occurred sometime on Jan. 23 or 24. Police saw “scuff marks and scratches” on the front, driver-side of the car.
Argument in traffic
Officers saw a 32-year-old Lemont woman jump out of a slow-moving green Ford Explorer on the 7300 block of Ogden Avenue around 6 p.m., Jan. 26. A 34-year-old Rockford man then got out of the driver seat, and police asked for identification. The woman told officers she and her boyfriend were arguing over financial problems and he had taken her purse. Meanwhile, the boyfriend approached officers and began swearing at them. He was eventually handcuffed due to his “aggressive behavior.” The woman was taken to police headquarters to call for a ride home.
Three-vehicle crash
Officers responded to a multi-car crash on Harlem Avenue and 26th Street on Jan. 26 around 7:30 p.m. At the scene, police found a locked 2013 Kia with front-end damage and a 56-year-old female driver still inside “experiencing an unknown medical problem … periodically pressing the gas pedal uncontrollably combined with loud verbal outbursts.” Officers smashed a rear window to get inside the car and help the woman, who they found out was diabetic.
Officers found a second car, a 2016 Honda, with rear passenger-side damage and four young child passengers with neck and head pain and a 36-year-old driver. The airbags had deployed. The third car, a 2010 Lexus, was also damaged but the 56-year-old driver told officers he wasn’t hurt.
Witnesses told officers the Kia failed to stop at the red light at Harlem and Longcommon Road and collided with the Honda, which then spun out and hit the Lexus.
Injured passengers were taken to Loyola Hospital.
Burglary
A 51-year-old North Riverside woman called police after she discovered her office at Faith Lutheran Church, 3801 Madison Ave., had been burglarized sometime before 9 a.m. on Jan. 29. The woman arrived that morning to find her office door forced open and the dead bolt on the floor. A gray metal lock box with about $50 inside was reported missing. On Jan 28, there was a blood drive at the church. Police noted in their report that the same office was burglarized in July 2012. No arrests were made.
Grill stolen
A 29-year-old Brookfield man told police that on Jan. 26 around 8 p.m. someone had taken his $200 gas grill from his patio on the 4200 block of Dubois Boulevard. The victim found his grill brush and a cable lock for the grill in the alley and then realized his grill was gone. The day before, the man’s wife noticed their backyard gate was open.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Jan. 23-28, 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 Thomas Vogel
