Two masked men, one of them brandishing a handgun, made off with cash and cigarettes after robbing the 7-Eleven store at 9205 Cermak Road in North Riverside on Jan. 29 at about 3:15 a.m.

Police responding to a 911 call from the store clerk were unable to locate any suspects, who reportedly fled in a gold or silver 1997-2001 Lexus ES300 eastbound on Cermak Road.

Security video from the store reportedly showed the two suspects enter the store from the west. 

The first suspect was described as a black male, about 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, wearing a black puffy jacket with an Army green hood over his head, a balaclava-style mask, black skinny jeans, black shoes and a white glove on his left hand.

The other suspect was also a black male, about 6-feet tall and 180 pounds, wearing a tan deer hide jacket with a black hood, a full black ski mask, gray jogging pants and a white glove on his right hand.

 

Teacher struck trying to break
up fight

Two 15-year-old boys, one from Riverside and one from North Riverside, were charged with aggravated battery to a school employee, a felony, after striking a female teacher who stepped between them to break up a fight in a hallway at Riverside-Brookfield High School, 160 Ridgewood Road in Riverside, on Jan. 27 at about 2:25 p.m.

According to Riverside police, the fight between the two boys was the culmination of a longstanding dispute that had played out both at school and on social media. The two got into a physical altercation outside of a classroom in a second-floor hallway.

They continued to throw punches at each other, said police, when the teacher intervened, striking her. She was not injured and did not require medical attention. Other staff members were able to separate the two boys.

In addition to the felony charge, which is automatic when the battery involves a school employee, each boy was charged with disorderly conduct.

 

Several injured in DUI crash

An Uber driver, who was in between rides and allegedly impaired, plowed into three other vehicles head-on when his car crossed the center line on Harlem Avenue at Lawton Road in Riverside at about 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 2, injuring several people.

The Uber driver, a 42-year-old North Riverside man, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving in the wrong lane and other offenses. Police shut down the roadway for about 90 minutes to investigate the crash and clean up the roadway. All of those taken to area hospitals sustained what police termed “non-life threatening” injuries.

 

Cash, jewelry taken in burglary

An 80-year-old Brookfield man contacted police on the evening of Jan. 31, after discovering that his house had been burglarized while his attention was diverted by someone perpetrating a scam.

The victim told police that at about 5 p.m., a man purporting to be a public works department employee appeared at the back door, frantically advising the victim of a water main break nearby and saying he needed to turn off two pipes in the victim’s basement.

Inside the basement, the victim watched as the man banged on copper pipes and ran water in the laundry tub. The man told the victim the water was contaminated and to run the water for five minutes to make sure it was clean again.

After the man left the home, the victim went upstairs and noticed bedroom furniture drawers ajar. He reported that more than $700 in cash and about 20 pieces of jewelry were missing. Another $40 was reportedly taken from another bedroom.

 

Vehicle break-ins

Brookfield police responded to the 3700 block of Harrison Street after a resident called to report that sometime between 6 p.m. on Jan. 25 and 12:45 p.m. on Jan. 27, someone entered her unlocked vehicle, which was parked in the driveway, and removed a pack of chewing gum and a small bag of change.

A resident of the 3600 block of Madison Avenue, Brookfield, called police on the morning of Jan. 27 to report that during the overnight hours someone had entered his apparently unlocked vehicle, which was parked on the street, and removed $50 in cash, which was kept there for emergencies, from the glove box.

A resident of the 2500 block of Burr Oak Avenue, North Riverside, reported that someone entered his vehicle, which was left unlocked and parked while warming up, on Jan. 27 at about 5:50 a.m., and removed a laptop computer, power inverter and a credit card.

 

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 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