A vehicle apparently stolen from a Brookfield home in the 3200 block of Madison Street was found just blocks away in LaGrange Park – parked in the middle of a street with its headlights off, the windshield wipers going at full speed and its rear passenger doors open – on March 5 at about 9:50 p.m.

LaGrange Park police called Brookfield police to report that a vehicle registered to a Brookfield address had been recovered in the 2600 block of Kemman Avenue. Police contacted the owner of the vehicle, who said he’d last seen the vehicle, which had been parked behind his garage, at about 2 p.m.

The victim told police that he kept the keys to the van nearby in an unsecured location. The only thing missing from that area, the victim said, was the key to the vehicle. Nothing appeared to be missing from the vehicle, either.

Suspicious car flees from police

A Brookfield police officer trying to stop a black Hyundai Sonata registered to a Hammond, Indiana, car dealership called off high-speed pursuit as the car sped through a residential neighborhood at about 6:05 a.m. on March 2.

The officer had been dispatched to the Memorial Circle where the Hyundai was stopped at a stop sign with its driver and three passengers all asleep, despite loud music blaring from the vehicle.

According to police, the car was in gear and the driver’s foot was on the brake. When the officer woke up the driver, the man reportedly took off the wrong way around the circle and headed east on Washington Avenue at speeds estimated at 70 mph.

The car struck a 2012 Toyota Sienna van driven by a 57-year-old Willow Springs man at Golf Avenue. The driver of the van wasn’t injured, police said. The Hyundai was last seen northbound on First Avenue.

Cops: drunk driver going 87 mph

A 40-year-old River Forest man was drunk when a police officer clocked him going 87 mph in a 35 mph zone while northbound on First Avenue at Ridgewood Road on March 5 at about 2:30 a.m., Riverside police have reported.

An officer on patrol reported the gray 2016 Toyota Corolla driving at a high rate of speed – 87 mph according to the in-squad radar – and drifting erratically between lanes. The officer caught up to the car when it had to slow down because of other vehicles on the road and pulled it over.

The driver appeared disoriented, according to police, and failed field sobriety tests. Police charged him with drunken driving, aggravated speeding and improper lane usage.

IRS scam

A 40-year-old Brookfield woman told police last week that she was scammed out of $2,000 after receiving a phone call from someone with a foreign accent who claimed she owed the IRS money and told her to buy gift cards in that amount to settle the debt.

The victim told police she bought a $1,000 Best Buy gift card and then bought 10 $100 iTunes gift cards, providing the gift card numbers to the caller, who stayed on the line with her the entire time.

When the victim provided the final gift card number to the caller, and he told her it was the wrong number, she said she got suspicious and called police. The victim, according to the police report, is working with her bank to recover the money she lost in the scam. 

Vehicle break-in

A resident of the 4100 block of Madison Avenue, Brookfield, reported to police on the morning of Feb. 27 that during the overnight hours someone entered her unlocked vehicle, which was parked in front of her home.

The victim said she found contents of the glove box scattered throughout the vehicle and that about $1 in loose change was missing from the ashtray. Also the removable faceplate of the car’s radio was missing.

Can’t boot me

Brookfield police ticketed a 31-year-old Brookfield man on March 1 after he allegedly deflated a tire on his vehicle in order to remove a boot police had placed on it due to unpaid parking fines.

An officer applied the boot on Feb. 28, but noticed the vehicle missing the following day. On March 1, the man returned to the police department and turned over the boot, saying he had planned on leaving it in front of the police department at night.

Asked where his vehicle was, the man said he left it in Chicago. Police ticketed him for tampering and relocation of a vehicle immobilization device. 

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Feb. 27-March 5, 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