A 57-year-old Brookfield man went to police on Oct. 18 after he apparently fell for an online computer repair scam that cost him $700.
The victim told police that on the previous day about 9:30 a.m. he was working on his Apple computer, when a pop-window opened, informing him that his computer was compromised. The message told him to call an 800 number.
When he tried to close the pop-up window, it would immediately return, so he decided to call.
The victim talked with a man who told him his computer had been infected by a virus and he could fix it remotely if the victim turned over his computer password. The victim gave the password to the man, who took remote access of the computer.
Afterward, the man told the victim he needed to pay for the service and charged $700 to the victim’s credit card.
After that initial call, the man received several others, and determined he’s been the victim of a scam. He called Apple Support Group, which did not have a record of the incident. The firm helped him change his passwords, securing it and called his bank to cancel the credit card.
Burglary
Riverside police responded to an apartment building in the first block of Forest Avenue on the morning of Oct. 20 to investigate a storage locker break-in.
The victim told police he last saw the storage locker intact two weeks ago. Police observed that the lock for the locker was intact, but a board was broken in half, allowing access to open the gate.
Among the items missing were a set of tires for an SUV, a fishing tackle box and other fishing equipment.
The rear entrance door to the locker area had been replaced within the past three days, according to the police report. Prior to that, the door to that area didn’t lock, according to the report.
It’s the second storage unit break-in at a building on Forest Avenue that Riverside police have investigated since Oct. 9. In both instances, the burglar opened the locker while leaving the lock intact.
Fingerprints tie man to 2016 burglary
Fingerprint evidence has led Brookfield police to charge a 24-year-old Chicago man with criminal trespass to a motor vehicle that had been stolen from the 3500 block of McCormick Avenue almost a year earlier, on Oct. 26, 2016.
Back in 2016, the victim called police to report that her home had been burglarized and her vehicle stolen. Chicago police located the vehicle on Dec. 1, 2016 in the 2600 block of South Troy Avenue and investigators were able to collect fingerprint evidence from it.
Finally, on Aug. 15, 2017, Brookfield police received an Illinois State Police Crime Lab report tying those fingerprints to a documented street gang member who had last been arrested for possession of a stolen motor vehicle.
On Oct. 20, a Brookfield detective interviewed the suspect at Cook County Jail. The suspect denied being involved in the Brookfield burglary and said he didn’t recognize the vehicle. Police used the fingerprint evidence to charge him with the misdemeanor trespassing offense.
Gun displayed
A 33-year-old man called North Riverside police about 5 p.m. on Oct. 22 to report that a motorist had displayed a handgun during a verbal altercation in an alley behind the 2200 block of Keystone Avenue.
The caller told police his car had broken down and it was sitting in the middle of the alley when a red SUV with dealer plates drove toward him. The driver of the SUV began yelling at him, said the caller, and when he walked over to explain the situation, the motorist reached into the center console of the SUV and unholstered a handgun and displayed it.
The SUV reversed down the alley while the other man had his wife call police.
Plates on wrong car
A North Riverside police officer on patrol in the parking lot of the North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road, on Oct. 18 about 5:50 p.m., did a computer check on a BMW with Wisconsin license plates and found that a Chevy Impala registered to those plates had been reported stolen out of Madison, Wisconsin, on Oct. 11.
When no one returned to the vehicle at 8:15 p.m., police opened the unlocked vehicle and found receipts from a purchases after Oct. 11 at the Hinsdale Oasis on I-294 and a clothing store in Chicago.
Police impounded the vehicle.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Oct. 16-22, 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
