Brookfield police reported one vehicle stolen and two more vehicles whose ignitions had been tampered with overnight on Sept. 25-26.
A resident of the 9000 block of Southview Avenue called police at about 6:50 a.m. that day to report that a gray 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe had been stolen from the driveway of her residence.
Police confirmed that the vehicle owner was up to date on payments and that she possessed the only keys. There was no glass on the pavement indicating that the window was shattered to gain entry.
A couple of hours later, a resident of the 9500 block to Monroe Avenue reported that someone had ransacked his pickup truck, which now would not start. According to the police report, the ignition switch had been tampered with.
The victim also reported that his girlfriend’s car, also a Hyundai, did start. However, after stopping at a gas station to make a purchase, the vehicle would not start again. Upon closer examination, the victim said there were scratches to the area near the ignition switch as if someone had tried to tamper with it.
False auto theft report
Riverside police charged a 66-year-old Cicero man with a misdemeanor count of filing a false police report after he reported a work truck stolen while he was doing a landscaping job at a home in the 200 block of Fairbank Road on the afternoon of Sept. 21.
The man waited until an hour after the vehicle allegedly had been stolen, and he initially told police he’d left the keys inside the truck and that it was taken while he was inside the house to get a drink of water.
However, the homeowner denied the man ever entered the house and private security video from the neighborhood reportedly showed the “stolen” truck leave the block followed closely behind by another of the landscaping company’s trucks at 1:47 p.m.
Confronted with that evidence, the man told police he had put a lot of money into the truck trying to fix it and wanted to “get his money back” apparently by filing an insurance claim for it being stolen.
Halloween decoration slashed
A resident of the 2400 block of 6th Avenue, North Riverside, called police on Sept. 24 at about 10:20 p.m. after a 10-foot-tall inflatable ghost decoration on the front lawn had been punctured.
The witness told police they noticed the ghost lit and inflated when a group of four juveniles walked past it. The witness then saw the light go out and the ghost deflate at which time the kids ran away.
The decoration cost about $150 to purchase several years ago, the victim told police.
Trespassing
North Riverside police charged a 35-year-old Chicago man with criminal trespassing after an officer on patrol reported seeing him inside a gray BMW parked on the lot at Castle Buick, 7400 Cermak Road, just before 9 p.m. on Sept. 19 when the dealership’s gates were locked.
The officer ordered the man, who allegedly said he was “checking the car out,” out of the vehicle and took him into custody. No other vehicles in the lot appeared to have been disturbed, police said.
DUI
A 49-year-old Chicago woman was charged by North Riverside police with drunken driving after officers were dispatched to the intersection of Cermak Road and First Avenue to check on someone reportedly passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle.
Arriving police reported observing a white SUV in the curb lane of westbound Cermak Road. As the officer approached, the vehicle slowly drove forward and came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the intersection.
The officer approached the stopped vehicle and reported seeing the driver with her head tilted back on the headrest, eyes closed and mouth wide open, with her foot on the brake and the vehicle running and in drive.
After multiple attempts to rouse the driver, police said, the woman was able to put the vehicle in park. According to police, the driver’s blood-alcohol content was .111, which is more than the legal maximum of .08.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Sept. 19-26, 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
