Riverside police petitioned a Hauser Junior High School student to juvenile court for unlawful use of a weapon after he reportedly brought a knife to school in his backpack to threaten someone he believed snitched on him for pulling a fire alarm.
According to the police report, the parents of a student went to the Hauser School principal on May 11 to report their child had told them a student had been showing a knife to other students.
School officials, according to Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel, searched the student’s backpack and found what Weitzel described as a “folding knife.” Weitzel said police interviewed the boy in the company of his mother, and that the student admitted he was going to use the knife to threaten another student outside of the school grounds on the way home from school.
The student who brought the knife to school, according to police, believed a classmate had told school officials that he had pulled a fire alarm the previous week. Riverside School District 96 officials conducted their own investigation.
School officials notified parents of the district of the situation via email that afternoon. Superintendent Martha Ryan-Toye told the Landmark that a disciplinary process was unfolding, but declined to go into detail on that process due to student confidentiality concerns.
Cab driver charged with DUI
Riverside police charged a 52-year-old cab driver with drunken driving after responding to a call of a man slumped behind the wheel of a taxi on Parkview Road just east of First Avenue at about 6 p.m. on May 12.
Police reported finding River Grove resident Alexander Zubchenko passed out at the wheel of his cab, which was still running but parked along the roadway. The driver showed “extreme” and “obvious” signs of intoxication, said police, who reported recovering an open, half-empty bottle of vodka from the glove box. The cab reportedly was owned by Oak Park-based Blue Cab.
Zubchenko reportedly told police he’d dropped off some kids at a school in Lombard and afterward drank a beer and some vodka. He reportedly told police he wanted to take a nap before returning to pick up the kids.
Police said Zubchenko could face further charges if it’s found he was drunk while transporting passengers. There were no passengers in the cab at the time of his arrest.
“To think that he was driving a cab and may have been transporting children is extremely distressing,” said Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel in a press release.
In addition to driving under the influence, Zubchenko was cited for illegal parking on a roadway and illegal transportation of open alcohol.
Bike stolen
A resident of the 100 block of East Quincy Street, Riverside, reported to police on May 9 that someone stole his gray Haro 20-inch bicycle from the residence. The incident reportedly took place during the overnight hours of May 3-4. The loss was estimated at $360.
‘We took your jewelry’
A Brookfield woman called police on May 9 after receiving a phone call from an unknown party who reportedly taunted her, laughing and saying, “We robbed you. We took your jewelry.”
The woman told police that at first she thought it was a prank call, but realized it wasn’t after she checked her dresser drawer and noticed that a silver ring and two gold necklaces were missing. She last observed the jewelry, valued at about $5,000, in the dresser drawer in December.
Police found no evidence of forced entry to the residence.
A 65-year-old North Riverside woman contacted police on May 14 to report that 40 pieces of jewelry had been stolen from a jewelry box safe she keeps inside another piece of luggage in her home.
The victim said she hadn’t opened the jewelry safe in about four months. Among the items reported missing were 15 rings, 10 bracelets, 10 charms, a diamond tennis bracelet, two wedding rings, a gold pocket watch and a men’s gold bracelet.
Riverside police responded to a Forest Avenue apartment on May 10 at about 9:50 a.m. after someone called to report a man hanging out a window yelling that he was “being robbed.”
According to police, the victim stated the previous night he found his back door forced open and his 60-inch flat panel TV and laptop computer missing. In the morning he noticed his cellphone, driver’s license, debit card and his Hyundai Elantra missing.
Police are continuing their investigation.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, May 8-14, 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
