Brookfield Fire Department officials said a preliminary investigation into a Sept. 8 garage fire behind a home in the 9100 block of Sheridan Avenue could not determine the cause of the blaze, which destroyed the garage and damaged two others. At this time, however, no foul play is suspected.

The owners of the property were inside their home when the fire started at about 4:40 p.m., according to the police report, and learned about the blaze from a neighbor who called 911. The homeowners used the garage for storage and the last time they had been inside it was Sept. 6, according to the police report of the incident.

A neighbor told police he was in and out of his backyard for about two hours prior to the fire starting and didn’t see or hear anything suspicious. He told police he first saw smoke emanating from the garage’s side service door.

When emergency personnel arrived, they observed the detached garage to be fully engulfed in flames. There was also “excessive damage” to the garage immediately west and damage to the garage and fence immediately east.

Due to the extent of the fire, police evacuated four homes – two on each side of the alley in the immediate vicinity of the fire, which also caused a power line to come down.

Police closed Maple Avenue from the railroad track to the Veterans Memorial Circle to accommodate the large fire response. Maple Avenue reopened to traffic just after 6 p.m.

Vehicle break-ins

A resident of the 300 block of Longcommon Road flagged down a police officer on the morning of Sept. 9 to report that someone had entered his unlocked vehicle, which was parked on the street, and rummaged through the interior. Northing was reported missing.

Riverside police responded to a home in the 400 block of Uvedale Road last week after a resident called to report that during the early morning hours of Aug. 31 someone entered his unlocked vehicle, which was parked in the rear of the property, and stole his iPhone.

DUI crash

Riverside police charged a man, whose age and address were not provided, with drunken driving and other traffic offenses after he allegedly crashed his 2004 Dodge into the rear of a 2011 Mazda that was stopped at a red light in the left-turn lane on Harlem Avenue at East Burlington Street at about 9:15 a.m. on Sept. 6.

 A portable breath test revealed the offender’s blood-alcohol content to be .174, which is more than twice the legal limit of .08, according to police, who also reported finding a can of beer inside the offender’s vehicle. No one was injured.

Bus shelter shattered

North Riverside police responded to Cermak Road and Lathrop Avenue on the morning of Sept. 7 after receiving a report of a shattered glass at a Pace bus shelter on the southeast corner of the intersection.

Public works was contacted to remove the broken glass and police notified Pace of the damage.

Scrap steel swiped from yard

A resident of the 3100 block of Cleveland Avenue, Brookfield, called police on the evening of Sept. 9 to report that someone had stolen three pieces of scrap stainless steel valued at $200 and a “temperature gauge” from his backyard on Sept. 3 at about 9:30 a.m.

The victim told police he’d placed the items along the side of his garage, and security cameras captured the theft. Police reported that the camera footage showed a red Ford conversion van stop in the alley behind the garage.

The driver is then seen entering the victim’s yard, which is not fenced, and taking the items and then loading them into the van. The van then departed northbound through the alley.

Catalytic converter stolen

A woman went o Brookfield police on Sept. 9 to report that sometime between the morning of Sept. 4 and the morning of Sept. 7, someone sawed off the catalytic converter from the undercarriage of a 2005 Hyundai Tucson parked at the southwest corner of Maple and Rochester avenues.

It’s the latest in a string of catalytic converter thefts in Brookfield. The devices were sawn off four vehicles in Brookfield overnight on Aug. 31-Sept. 1 and several others have been stolen in the past two months.

Bike stolen in Brookfield

A 14-year-old LaGrange Park boy went to police on the evening of Sept. 12 to report that someone had stolen his bicycle from the alley behind the 3300 block of Elm Avenue. The boy told police he’d left his bike leaning against the garage at about 6 p.m. When he returned 20 to 30 minutes later, the dark green Trek mountain bike valued at about $300 was gone.

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Sept. 6-12 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