Two women, apparently sisters, were charged with three counts each of child endangerment after reportedly leaving six children under the age of 6 unsupervised for between 1.5 and three hours in two different vehicles parked near each other in the lower-level parking deck at the North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road on the afternoon of June 19.

Police responded to the scene just after 4 p.m. after a witness called to report that the children had been inside the vehicles unattended for at least the past hour. Police would later learn through security camera video that three of the children had been left unattended since about 1:20 p.m. and the other three had been left unattended since about 2:25 p.m.

Three children in a blue Acura were all sitting in the driver’s seat, with the front windows cracked about three inches. The other three were in a gray Mazda CX-9, all sitting in the middle seat.

Police observed the interior of both vehicles to be in “complete disarray with open food containers, half-eaten food, dirty baby bottles and dirty diapers throughout.”

One of the women, a 25-year-old Berwyn woman returned to the vehicles at 4:07 p.m.  The other, a 30-year-old Chicago resident returned at 4:18 p.m. with her 5-year-old son, who had gone inside the mall with his mother at 1:20 p.m.

Police arrested the two women and contacted the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, while all seven children were taken to Loyola University Medical Center for evaluation.

The children were later turned over to their grandmother pending the DCFS investigation.

Burglary

North Riverside police responded to the 2400 block of Keystone avenue on June 22 after someone called to report three large boxes of Christmas decorations stolen from their garage sometime after 1 p.m. on June 21. The service door to the garage had been left unlocked, police reported.

Catalytic converter thefts

Brookfield police have taken at least three reports regarding stolen catalytic converters, all apparently from Ford trucks, in the past couple of weeks.

The first reportedly happened overnight on June 15-16, possibly in the 9400 block of 47th Street. In that incident catalytic converters were sawn off four vehicles, according to the victim.

The second was reported on the morning of June 19 at a location in the 9300 block of Ogden Avenue. The third was reported in the 9300 block of Burlington Avenue on June 20.

Police continue to investigate the thefts.

Fleeing and eluding

Quincy Cobbs, 23, of Chicago faces a felony fleeing/eluding charge after speeding away from a North Riverside police officer at speeds approaching 90 mph in a 35-mph zone while northbound on First Avenue from 25th Street on June 24 at about 2:25 a.m.

The officer caught up to Cobbs’ white Dodge Charger at Cermak Road, but it again sped north, allegedly through red lights at 13th Street and Roosevelt Road and then onto eastbound I-290 where Cobbs allegedly drove at speeds up to 120 mph, leading police to terminate the chase.

At 6:45 p.m. that same day, North Riverside police received a call from police in Hickory Hills, who had arrested Cobbs on an unrelated matter and had seen that North Riverside had entered the vehicle’s license plate number as a wanted felony vehicle.

In addition to the felony, North Riverside police charged Cobbs with aggravated speeding, reckless driving and several traffic violations.

DUI crash

Southbound traffic on First Avenue was shut down between Ogden Avenue and 31st Street for about five hours on the morning of June 19 after an alleged drunk driver crossed her 2023 Subaru across the centerline and into the path of a northbound 2007 Mack semi-tractor truck, hitting it head on just south of Waubansee Road.

The 31-year-old Berwyn woman at the wheel of the Subaru sustained non-life threatening injuries and was taken to Loyola University Medical Center where she underwent surgery. She was charged with driving under the influence and cited for other traffic offenses.

The driver was also charged with violating the state’s concealed carry law. Police recovered a loaded pistol, which was in a holster on a gun belt, along with two more loaded magazines, on the back seat of the Subaru.

The truck driver was not injured, but the impact of the crash tore open one of the vehicle’s two 50-gallon fuel tanks, leaking diesel fuel onto the roadway.

Riverside Public Safety Director Matthew Buckley said a hazardous materials firm was called out to clean up the spill, which he said was contained to the roadway and catch basin and did not leak into the sewer system itself.

Northbound traffic reopened at about 9:30 a.m., with southbound traffic opening back up around 11 a.m.

Riverside police charged a 34-year-old Tinley Park man with driving under the influence of alcohol after his red Cadillac struck the curb, blowing out the two passenger side tires on June 20 at about 2:05 a.m.in the vicinity of First Avenue and 31st Street.

When the officer arrived on scene, he observed the Cadillac off the roadway and on the grass, and the driver vomiting on the ground next to the vehicle. The driver appeared intoxicated, according to police, and denied being under the influence. He also refused sobriety tests.

Brookfield police charged a 44-year-old Brookfield woman with drunken driving after she was reported by a witness to be driving “all over the road” while westbound on Washington Avenue from Golf Road on June 17 at 2 a.m.

An officer located the woman’s car approaching the Veterans Memorial Circle, which it went around at about 3 mph, and then onto the 9200 block of Broadway Avenue where it struck the curb and went up onto the parkway before reentering the roadway and coming to a stop at Lincoln and Madison avenues.

Bike theft

Riverside police responded to a residence in the 100 block of Fairbank Road on the evening of June 19 after a parent called to report that his child’s bicycle had been stolen from the driveway sometime in the past 24 hours.

The bike was described as a pearl white Verza Speed 50, valued at around $900.

Wanted/stolen vehicles recovered

On June 19 at about 10:40 a.m., a license plate reader camera at Harlem Avenue and 25th Street in North Riverside alerted police to a tan Buick wanted by Berwyn police in connection with a residential burglary.

North Riverside police located the vehicle in front of Door Buster Deals, 7337 25th St. in the North Riverside Park Plaza shopping center, where they turned it over to Berwyn police.

North Riverside police responded to North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road, on June 23 at about 6:15 p.m. after a license plate reader camera alerted them to the presence of a stolen black Jeep.

Officers located the Jeep, unoccupied, near the entrance by Forman Mills and had it towed away so police could reunite it with the owner.

These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, June 16-25, 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