Vehicle break-ins continued in Brookfield last week, with seven instances taking place during the overnight hours of March 22-23, according to police reports obtained from the village police department.
All of the vehicles targeted in the late night/early morning spree were unlocked. Three of the incidents occurred in the 3700 block of Raymond Avenue, while two each took place in the 3700 blocks of Cleveland Avenue and Kemman Avenue.
The offender rifled through the glove boxes and center consoles of the vehicles, sometimes leaving items from the vehicles lying in the street next to them. Many of the victims reported nothing of value missing from their vehicles.
However, the victim who owned one of the vehicles parked in the 3700 block of Kemman Avenue told police that a key for a storage locker, which he left in his car, had been jammed into the ignition switch and broke in two, as if someone tried to use it forcibly to steal the vehicle.
A T-Mobile flip phone valued at about $75 was taken from a vehicle on Cleveland Avenue.
Rush hour road rage
Police responded to the 200 block of Lionel Road, Riverside, on March 21 at about 6:30 p.m. after a Riverside woman called to report a road rage incident. The woman said she was waiting at the Burlington/Longcommon stop sign for her turn when a large Ford truck with Wisconsin license plates ran the stop sign and tried to cut her off as she turned south onto Longcommon Road.
The truck driver reportedly yelled at the woman and flashed inappropriate hand gestures until the two vehicles were just past the police station on Riverside Road. There the truck sped up and passed the woman’s vehicle, got in front of her and slammed on the brakes.
The woman stated the truck driver continued to yell at her all the way to Miller Road, where he turned to exit the village. When the woman continued east onto Lionel Road, the truck driver swerved into the woman’s lane, causing her to evade him to avoid a collision.
According to the police report, the woman told police that this kind of thing always happens during rush hour but said she didn’t call police because the other driver would have been gone by the time they arrived.
The woman reportedly provided police with a photo of the other vehicle.
Phone smacked from hand
North Riverside police charged a 54-year-old Berwyn man with battery and disorderly conduct for allegedly slapping a cellphone out of the hand of a 52-year-old North Riverside woman during an incident at Dunkin Donuts, 8360 Cermak Road on March 25 at about 9:45 p.m.
According to the police report, the victim was standing in line at the cash register when a customer behind her became irate because of the long wait. The man allegedly began yelling profanities and the woman took out her phone to record his actions. The man noticed the woman video recording him and allegedly slapped her hand, knocking the phone to the ground.
The man then left the building, got into a gold Lexus and drove away.
Vehicle damaged in Riverside
A resident of the 300 block of Gatesby Road, Riverside, called police on the morning of March 25 to report that sometime during the overnight hours someone broke out the rear window of his vehicle, which was parked in the driveway of his residence.
There was nothing of value inside the vehicle and nothing was reported missing, according to the police report.
Forgery/Identity theft
Destiny D. Tower, 21, of Chicago faces felony forgery charges after she reportedly tried to open a credit card account at a jewelry store inside the North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road, on March 21 at about 12:50 p.m.
Tower presented a New Jersey driver’s license to an employee ay Kay Jewelers but the application was flagged by the company’s fraud department and police were summoned.
An officer was able to verify Tower’s actual identity and reported that she was also wanted on a pair of active warrants. Tower reportedly told police she bought the fraudulent driver’s license online and was going to use it to purchase jewelry so she could then sell it.
Christina M. Scott, 30, of Fairbury, Illinois, was charged with felony identity theft after she allegedly attempted to open a membership and credit card account at Costco, 2500 Harlem Ave. in North Riverside, with a fraudulent driver’s license.
Confronted about the fraudulent driver’s license, Scott reportedly told police she found it in the parking lot and had used it by mistake. After being told surveillance cameras would be able to verify that claim, Scott then said she obtained the license from a man at a halfway house.
At the time of her arrest, Scott was on parole for a 2014 conviction for theft by deception in McLean County.
Tomatoed
Police responded to the 300 block of Bartram Road, Riverside, on the morning of March 26 after a resident called to complain that someone had thrown a tomato at his house two days earlier.
The man reported that he was inside the house watching TV at about 9 p.m. on March 24 when he heard a thud by the front window. He got up and went out onto the front porch and reportedly saw a tan sedan speed off.
The following day, the man reported finding a tomato on the ground behind bushes in front of his house, and he could see a mark on the window frame where the tomato hit it.
About three months ago, the homeowner said, someone had thrown eggs at his house.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, March 20 to March 26, 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
