A 47-year-old Maywood man found passed out behind the wheel of a red Chevy in the eastbound lanes of traffic on Cermak Road at the Canadian National Railroad crossing in North Riverside at about 3:15 a.m. on Sept. 2 faces both drunken driving and drug-related charges.
Police said they tried to rouse the driver for several minutes before they were able to get him to respond. They also noted an open beer bottle in the center console of the vehicle.
The driver reportedly admitted to drinking four and a half cups of cognac and believed he had pulled over to the side of the road on I-290. After failing field sobriety tests, including a portable breath test, the driver was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
While searching the car prior to it being towed, police reported finding large sums of cash along with a large number of plastic bags commonly used for packaging narcotics for sale. In all, police recovered 39 bags containing 10 grams of heroin and $2,850 in cash.
In addition to DUI, police charged the man with possession of a controlled substance and manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance.
Fire under investigation
Investigators said they could not conclusively say what caused a fire to break out inside a vacant home under construction at 9037 Fairview Ave. in Brookfield during the early morning hours of Sept. 5. However, they said the fire did not appear to be suspicious.
Emergency personnel responded to the home at 5:35 a.m. and observed a large amount of smoke coming from the roof and attic windows. The building was being rehabbed, according to the police report of the incident, and the day prior the floors on the third floor had been stained.
There was a hole burned through the floor between the ground floor and the basement directly above an electrical junction box. The police report also noted that floor staining products had been left where the burnt area was located.
DUI crash
Riverside police charged a 56-year-old Riverside man with drunken driving and cited him for other traffic offenses after he allegedly crashed his white Ford Mustang into a black Honda that was parked in the 100 block of Herrick Road on Aug. 30 at about 8:45 p.m.
According to police the Ford was heading eastbound on Herrick Road when it struck the Honda, which was facing westbound on the north side of the street. A preliminary breath test reportedly indicated that the driver’s blood-alcohol content was .214, which is nearly three times the legal limit of .08.
The driver, who told police that “it was dark,” wasn’t hurt in the crash. In addition to driving under the influence, police cited the driver for failure to reduce speed to avoid a crash, improper lane usage and driving an uninsured vehicle.
Catalytic converters stolen
The catalytic converters were sawn off of four vehicles in Brookfield during the overnight hours of Aug. 31-Sept. 1, police reported, the latest in a series of similar thefts throughout the village in recent months.
Two of the vehicles targeted were Toyotas – at least one of them a Prius, which are particular targets of catalytic converter thieves. The other two vehicles targeted were Hondas, which police described as a van and an SUV.
The thefts were scattered throughout the village, occurring in the 8800 block of Plainfield Road, the 3100 block of Raymond Avenue, the 3100 block of Vernon Avenue and the 9000 block of Monroe Avenue.
Garage burglaries
Riverside police responded to the 400 block of Selborne Road on the morning of Aug. 31 after a resident called to report that during the overnight hours someone had burglarized the home’s garage.
The offender gained entry through an unlocked service door, police reported, and removed three bicycles. Two vehicles inside the garage had also been ransacked, but nothing was reported missing from them. Two other bicycles inside the garage were not stolen.
North Riverside police responded to a residence in the 2300 block of Burr Oak Avenue on Sept. 1 after a resident called to report that someone had burglarized his garage that day between 6:30 a.m. at 6 p.m.
The victim told police that when he returned home from work he found the garage overhead door open and saw that two bicycles, which had been hanging on a wall, were missing.
Police reported seeing no signs of forced entry. The bikes were described as a Specialized mountain bike with black and gray front shocks and a bag on the rear rack valued at $300 and a Trek Pilot 1.2 road bike with a maroon frame and red handle bars valued at $1,000.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Aug. 29-Sept. 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
