Five charged with mob action in Riverside
Riverside police have charged five people, three of them juveniles, with felony mob action, after they allegedly attacked a Riverside teenager outside his home on Northgate Road on Nov. 20 as apparent payback for failing to pay for cannabis earlier in the day.
As of Monday afternoon, Lindsey C. Harris, 19, of Lyons, was in Cook County Jail with bond set at $20,000. In addition to mob action he was charged with criminal damage to property.
Police also charged Brookfield resident, Jimmy Klimunda, 18, with mob action and battery. A 17-year-old Brookfield resident was charged with mob action and criminal damage to property, while a 17-year-old from North Riverside and a 16-year-old from Riverside were charged with mob action.
All of those charged were arrested within two hours on Nov. 28 after an eight-day investigation by Riverside police and the WEDGE gang and drug task force.
Police initially were investigating the incident as an armed robbery because the victim’s cellphone was taken during the attack, according to police. However, the victim and his father did not initially cooperate with police, and armed robbery charges were not filed.
“Once the victim stepped out of his home, he was viciously attacked by the mob with some type of blunt-force object and robbed of his cellphone,” said Police Chief Thomas Weitzel in a press release. “This robbery was the result of a botched drug deal that had taken place earlier in Brookfield.”
Wanted man drunk in cab
North Riverside police arrested a 25-year-old North Riverside man on Dec. 2 just before 1 a.m. after they were called by a cab driver to assist him with an intoxicated person inside his cab.
The driver told police that he was trying to collect his fare after waking up the man, who had fallen asleep in the back seat of the cab. The man eventually did pay for his ride with a credit card, but a computer check showed police that he was wanted on four warrants, two for DUI in McLean County, one for DUI in Cook County and one for assault in Cook County.
‘Tis the season for car break-ins
A 36-year-old Chicago resident told North Riverside police on Nov. 29 that while he was dining at Chili’s, 7225 Cermak Road, between 6:30 and 7:08 p.m., someone forced open the door to his 2009 Dodge and removed a cellphone from the center console.
Between 8 and 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 29, according to North Riverside police, someone forced open the door of a 2009 Dodge parked in the lot near Best Buy, 2358 Harlem Ave., popped open the trunk and removed an HP laptop computer and a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver located there. The victim reportedly works for a security firm.
North Riverside police said that on Dec. 1 between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m., someone punched out the lock of a 2005 GMC Yukon parked in the upper parking deck at the North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road, gained entry to the vehicle and removed several items purchased earlier that day from Foot Locker as well as three pairs of limited-edition shoes.
Between 4 and 6 p.m. on Dec. 1, someone broke into a 1999 GMC Yukon parked in the J.C. Penney lot at the North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road, and removed the CD/DVD player, a 13-inch mounted video screen, a Eureka vacuum cleaner and a griddle pan. One of the doors of the vehicle appeared to be damaged.
A 25-year-old Chicago man reported to North Riverside police on Dec. 2 that sometime between 4:30 and 5:45 p.m., someone broke into his 2005 Dodge, which was parked in the lot at the North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road, and removed the Pioneer stereo, a 15-inch speaker, a Bose amplifier and a Tom Tom global positioning system unit. There were no signs of forced entry, said police.
Solar panel broken
The owner of a home in the 3700 block of Morton Avenue, Brookfield, called police on Nov. 30 after she noticed that someone had broken a large solar panel mounted on the garage, apparently by throwing a rock at it. Several rocks were reported lying near the area. Damage was estimated at $2,000.
Dead rabbits at school
On Nov. 29, police were called to Congress Park School, 9311 Shields Ave., after a maintenance worker there reported that for the previous couple of days he had found dead rabbits, with their heads removed, in the middle of the parking lot.
These items were obtained from police reports filed by the Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield police departments, Nov. 26-Dec. 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.
