Berwyn Police Blotter
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Gang graffiti on garage, vandals deface handicapped woman’s car, and landscape-lighting damaged
July 17, 2010
Large—fifteen by eight feet in size—gang graffiti was left on a garage door in the 2600 block of Oak Park Avenue, as well as on another house in the 2700 block.
10:34 AM
An unknown offender in the 3600 block of Wesley threw a large amount of red paint across the hood and windshield of a woman’s 2008m Chevy Impala. When police arrived, the paint had already begun to dry in the heart. The defaced vehicle was parked in the victim’s clearly-marked, city-assigned handicapped space.
5:52 PM
In the 6400 block of Sinclair, someone damaged four landscape floodlights.
Gang activity • Graffiti / vandalism / criminal damage • (0) Comments • Permalink
Gang graffiti hotline lights up
July 16, 2010, 10:43 AM
A call to police on the graffiti hotline reported gang drawings and letters on the overhead garage door at an address in the 1800 block of Gunderson. More of the same was found on a garage door in the 2900 block of Oak Park.
Gang activity • Graffiti / vandalism / criminal damage • (0) Comments • Permalink
Early-hours bike theft
July 16, 2010
A grey bike was reported stolen from the back yard of a residence in the 3400 block of Clinton, some time between 5:30 and 8:18 AM.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Armed man robs, pistol-whips Brookfield resident
July 11, 2010, 11:54 PM
Another gun-related incident, this time in the alley behind the 1400 block of Lombard. A 41-year-old Brookfield man told police he was in the driver’s seat of his Ford pickup truck, parked there with a friend in the passenger seat, when a man appeared “out of nowhere”, opened the driver’s door and stuck a small chrome gun to his left cheek. The robber demanded the victims’ keys, cell phones and wallets. When the driver told the robber, “Hold on a minute,” the offender struck him upside the head with the butt of the gun. Both victims gave up the requested items. The robber then fled on foot southbound through the alley.
The victims said the robber was a male black in his 30s, 5’9”, 235 lbs, dressed in a bright orange shirt, striped shorts and a dark baseball cap.
Robbery • Suspicious people, objects or events • Weapons-related • (0) Comments • Permalink
Leg shot, mouth shut
July 11, 2010, 9:49 PM
Police responded to a call of shots fired outside Lucky Dog, Harlem and 16th. They found a man lying on the ground bleeding from his wounded left leg. According to the report, the victim refused to answer officers’ questions. Puddles of blood were found in a line from the north alley to where the victim lay on the north side of the restaurant.
Witnesses said a white two-door vehicle with a rear spoiler was involved, and described the two suspects as an Hispanic man and woman. The man, they said, had a semi-automatic handgun. Police recovered a 9MM Luger shell casing.
Suspicious people, objects or events • Weapons-related • Unusual, mysterious, odd or just weird • (0) Comments • Permalink
Man caught driving through Proksa Park
July 11, 2010, 7:20 PM
Two officers patrolling Proksa Park, 30th and Home, noticed something different: a white Ford minivan driving inside the park on a sidewalk. Driver Kibsain Cortes-Sanchez, 20, of Cicero, was cited for driving unlicensed and uninsured. He was also given both state and local citations for driving on the sidewalk.
Unusual, mysterious, odd or just weird • (0) Comments • Permalink
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Berwyn Police Department goes online with user-friendly crime stats
July 1 2010
Add this to your favorites: www.berwynpolicedepartment.com is coming soon. Berwyn Police James Ritz unveiled the department’s new website --featuring cutting-edge crime-mapping—to public officials and media representatives, including State Rep. Lisa Hernandez and, Berwyn City Clerk Tom Pavlik, and Berwyn’s 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th and 8th ward aldermen.
The website—to launch in time for next month’s National Night Out—was designed by Sgt. Joseph Fitzgerald and dispatcher Wayne Sedore, and gives users the ability to map crimes in their own neighborhoods. The user can choose to see a type of crime—say, burglary, theft, battery and the like—for a selected time period and a specific neighborhood. A zoomable map pops up, showing coded flags representing specific incidents at the location of the crime. The website also makes it easy to map area sex offenders.
According to Chief Ritz, “This is the tip of the iceberg of what’s out there. This is a state-of-the-art program. I know of no other department that has a program like this operating.”
A grant, good for three years, keeps the website fed with information updated every 24 hours. The grant covers CAPERS and Crime Reports; the latter automatically extracts basic information from incident reports generated within each 24-hour period.
The version available to the public will be simplified, with “what, where and when” available for search by any user. A more comprehensive version will be open to use by public officials. And the most thorough crime-analysis statistics will of course be at the fingertips of the Berwyn police department in time for rollcall each morning, enabling them to hit the “hot spots” with the most up-to-date information to guide them.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Stranger danger: their dog held hostage, little girls lured to prison-on-wheels
June 22, 2010, 4:45 PM
A Berwyn police officer on patrol in the 1400 block of Gunderson alley saw a red Dodge minivan parked there, with two young girls, ages 12 and 7, standing next to it. The officer noticed the children looked nervous and scared, so he began to question the van’s driver and the little girls. The officer learned the driver was holding the children’s dog inside the van, and trying to lure the children in also. When police examined the vehicle, they realized the passenger door was screwed permanently shut, and the inside door locks were jimmied, with the childlock devices engaged—thus preventing the escape of anyone held inside the minivan.
The state’s attorney approved a felony charge of attempted aggravated kidnapping of a minor child against Brian Q. Garcia, 32, a resident of the 2200 block of Grove. Police Chief James Ritz praised what he called the outstanding and exceptional efforts of the officer by which “an obvious tragedy was prevented.”
Announcements • Dogs, dog attacks • Memorable incidents • Miscellaneous • Suspicious people, objects or events • Unusual, mysterious, odd or just weird • (1) Comments • Permalink
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Felony charge answers the question “What, I can’t kill my own dog?”
June 20, 2010, 8:05 AM
Shocked anonymous callers told police a man had just shot his dog and dumped it in a trash can in the 6600 block of 34th. Police spoke with witnesses who said the offender had been drinking alcohol at a neighbor’s house. They said he then walked home, killed his own dog, threw its body in a garbage can in the alley and announced the deed to neighbors.
The offender’s female roommate told police he had a gun and led them to the basement, where they recovered a .177 pellet-shooting air rifle. When tactical cops asked the offender if he had other guns, he reportedly said, ‘Yeah, I got a shotgun in pieces upstairs, but I didn’t shoot my dog. I killed it with a bat. I hit it in the head with a f@&#ing bat.”
Police recovered the body of the dog—a black 14-year-old female named “Shakes”—from the trash can in the rear of 3329 Wesley. When police handcuffed Paul A. Canlas, 43, of 3333 Wesley, he reportedly said, “It was my dog. What, I can’t kill my own dog?”
Canlas had a valid FOID card, but his roommate did not. She told police she did not intend to allow him to return and wished the guns removed from the premises. Police recovered the air rifle and a Norinco 12-gauge shotgun, along with the wooden baseball bat.
Canlas waived his Miranda rights; he reportedly told detectives he had been out of work for nine months and had been drinking at a friend’s place when he decided to kill the dog because it was “old and sick”. He allegedly said he went home, led his dog into his garage and smashed her over the head with a baseball bat. Canlas reportedly stated he thought the first blow killed the dog, but he delivered a second blow to make sure.
The assistant state’s attorney gave felony approval at 10:18 PM. Canlas was charged with one felony count of aggravated cruelty to an animal, with a court date of Wednesday, June 23rd at 9:00 AM in courtroom #103 at Maybrook courthouse. The charge is a Class 4 felony.*
*
<< IL ST CH 510 § 70/3.02 >>
[§ 3.02. Aggravated cruelty.
(a) No person may intentionally commit an act that causes a companion animal to suffer serious injury or death. Aggravated cruelty does not include euthanasia of a companion animal through recognized methods approved by the Department of Agriculture unless prohibited under subsection (b).
(b) No individual, except a licensed veterinarian as exempted under Section 3.09, may knowingly or intentionally euthanize or authorize the euthanasia of a companion animal by use of carbon monoxide.
(c) A person convicted of violating Section 3.02 is guilty of a Class 4 felony. A second or subsequent violation is a Class 3 felony. In addition to any other penalty provided by law, upon conviction for violating this Section, the court may order the convicted person to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo any treatment at the convicted person’s expense that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evaluation. If the convicted person is a juvenile or a companion animal hoarder, the court must order the convicted person to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo treatment that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evaluation.
(Source: P.A. 92-650, eff. 7-11-02.)
Assault, battery • Dogs, dog attacks • Unusual, mysterious, odd or just weird • (0) Comments • Permalink
Saturday, June 19, 2010
It’s just a flesh wound!
June 17, 2010, 3:49 PM
Police were summoned to MacNeal Hospital’s emergency room to talk to a man who received gunshot wounds while walking on 19th between Euclid and Wesley.
The 41-year-old man, a resident of the 1800 block of Euclid, told police “I got it under control. I don’t need you. I can deal with this on my own.” Well, maybe, except for the medical-treatment part: doctors told police the bullet entered the victim through the right testicle, passed into the left leg and exited the leg.
All the victim would say was that he was walking to a friend’s house when three men approached and one pulled out a gun. The victim described the gun as a black .38 revolver, and said he grabbed the gun to take it away but it went off, striking him in the testicle and leg. The offenders ran away, he said, and would say no more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41mkI4ozCVU
Suspicious people, objects or events • Weapons-related • (0) Comments • Permalink
Hey! You don’t work for Red Bull!
June 17, 2010, 6:43 AM
The manager of Walgreen’s in Cermak Plaza detained a man he said he caught removing merchandise from the storage room. The manager said apparently entered the secured storage area somehow and removed three 24-pack cases of Red Bull, valued at $173.45. When the manager saw the stranger there, he said, “You don’t work for Red Bull! Who are you?” The man reportedly ran for the exit and shoved the manager, who detained him until police arrived. Eric Mercado, 25, of Cicero, was charged with battery and one count of felony retail theft.
Suspicious people, objects or events • Theft • (0) Comments • Permalink
Hit-and-run x 2
June 15, 2010, 11:48 AM
Witnesses told police a black vehicle struck a silver auto during a lane-change attempt at Ogden and Oak Park Ave., but when the silver vehicle pulled over, the black vehicle took off at high speed. The witness said he followed the offending car, which then struck a white Ford T-Bird at 38th and Wesley. Another witness reported seeing the same black Pontiac speeding eastbound through the alley behind AutoZone. Police spotted and stopped the Pontiac. Driver Bashkin Zeqiri, 25, of Harvard, IL, was charged with reckless driving, blowing a stop sign and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. The Pontiac was impounded.
Deafening
June 15, 2010, 11:19 AM
Police impounded an unusually loud black Chevy Tahoe after stopping it at 24th and Ridgeland for violating the city noise ordinance. The $500 noise citation was issued to driver Ricardo Gutierrez, 35, of Broadview. The SUV could be heard a startling 300 feet away.
Noise violations • Traffic stops / accidents • (0) Comments • Permalink
Betty Boop & suspicious loot
June 15, 2010
A caller reported a purse seen lying on the front lawn of a house in the 3600 block of Gunderson. Police saw it was a medium-sized black “Betty Boop” purse whose contents had spilled out onto the grass. Items in addition to the purse included two empty wallets and an Illinois state ID belonging to a woman from the 6500 block of 38th. In the same woman’s name there were also a Bank of America checkbook, a Social security Card and a Walmart card. Two additional Social Security cards fell from the purse, in two other women’s names. Dispatch told the officer that multiple vehicles in the area had been burglarized overnight.
Suspicious people, objects or events • (0) Comments • Permalink
Friday, June 18, 2010
Unsupervised stoop-sitting ok for people, not pitbull
June 14, 2010, 10:41 AM
Police were dispatched to 2622 Clarence on reports of a pitbull with no tags, sitting on the front porch all by itself. A witness told the officer the dog had once bitten someone. The officer noosed the animal, who responded by releasing feces onto the porch. The dog had apparently gained the freedom to porch-sit by jumping a fence, based on the bleeding injury to its right rear paw; it was taken to the Cicero animal shelter.