Late last week, the La Grange Police Department issued a crime alert, noting that the village and surrounding communities continue to experience a high rate of thefts from vehicles.
Portable hand-held devices such as iPods, GPS devices and cellular phones have been the primary targets. The vast majority of the thefts have been from unlocked vehicles.
Since June, Police Chief Michael Holub says La Grange alone has experienced 83 car burglaries (thefts from cars), 65 of which were from unlocked vehicles.
Police say they've been extremely focused on these crimes. Last week, one of our police officers on the midnight shift stopped and questioned a suspicious pedestrian who had property in his possession that he could not account for. The property was subsequently linked to a vehicle burglary in La Grange.
La Grange is also involved in a regional police task force which shares information regarding these types of crimes.
Its midnight shift patrol officers have made more than 750 "security notifications" to residents who have left windows, doors and/or garages open or unsecured. Officers will continue to leave notices and will also attempt to secure an open garage or car door when vulnerabilities are observed.The Village urges residents to lock vehicles and garages. Please call the police if you see someone parking a car on your block and walking away (parking in one location then walking to another location to steal something is typical thief behavior).
Other indicators include hearing strange noises or a dog barking excessively. When in doubt, call 9-1-1. Police would rather respond and find nothing out of the ordinary, than to not be called until after a theft has occurred.
For more information, contact the La Grange Police Department at (708) 579-2334.
And when the vandals aren't stealing everything from sunglasses, cigarettes and change to laptops and briefcases, they get into other mischief. Such as:
A week ago Monday, on Nov. 3, police and firefighters responded to a fire call in Gordon Park ... for a portable toilet fire at 12:05 a.m.
Less than seven hours later, police had to show up at 47th Street and La Grange Road (by the 7-Eleven) to remove "a piece of a car" from the street.
The previous night, at about 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2, police responded to the report of a large group of kids in Gordon Park, possibly with a bonfire in a container. When police arrived, they informed th driver of a vehicle parked in the lower YMCA lot was advised not to park there, but three others who started the fire were nowhere to be found.
At 8:50 p.m. Nov. 2, two young lovers with nothin' better to do, teenagers mind you, were caught taking off their clothes in a car parked at Maple and Sixth avenues. Police made sure they were dressed before sending them on their way. Thank you, Mr. Policeman.
Police accompanied a Calendar Court business operator to his car at about 9:30 p.m. Nov. 2 after the man told them he received a strange call and felt funny leaving alone.
Shortly after 10:15 a.m., a 66-year-old church deacon was taken to MacNeal Memorial Hospital in Berwyn after someone called 911 and told the dispatcher he suffered from an unknown problem because he was repeating himself and began swaying during a service.
Also about 11 a.m. that morning, a resident reported finding their fence spray painted in the 1300 block of Mason Drive.
At 4 a.m. Nov. 2, numerous pumpkins were discovered smashed on the sidewalks and streets in the 200 to 400 blocks of Eighth Avenue.
And, at 12:30 a.m. Nov. 2, someone reported there were 15 subjects, all dressed in black, toilet-papering a house just north of 47th Street on Brainard Avenue. When police arrived, they were unable to locate the subjects or the victimized house.
Police responded to a report of four 8- to 10-year-old skateboarders takng garbage out of a can and building a ramp with the can at Ashland and Harris avenues shortly after 7 p.m. Nov. 1.
Police also received reports of kids throwing pumpkins off of porches near 47th and Kensington Avenue at about 8 p.m. Nov. 1, but found no signs of kids or pumpkins, but a block party in progress.
At about 9 p.m. that night, police also responded to a report of kids throwing eggs at cars at La Grange Road and Ogden Avenue. The kids were gone on arrival, but an egged car was located in the Walgreens parking lot. Again, at 10:20 p.m.. eggers were reported at Ogden and Ashland avenues, but those offenders also were gone on arrival.
This next report falls under the GROW UP! category:
Two men believed to be in their 20s -- one dressed up as Indiana Jones, the other a devil -- rang a doorbell while out late and a day late trick-or-treating at 11 p.m. Nov. 1, and refused the resident's request to leave the front porch. They were gone when police arrived.
The front windows of a house were broken on the night of Oct, 31 in the 900 block of South Catherine Avenue, it was reported at 11:15 a.m. Nov. 1.
At 11 p.m. Halloween night, a resident of the 100 block of South Stone Avenue reported hearing a loud noise and realized the following day the first- and second-floor of their house was egged.
A special police watch was placed on the 100 bock of Blackstone Avenue a day after Halloween after a 9-year-old girl riding her bicycle said a vehicle which looked like an unmarked squad stopped in the street in front of her at about 12:50 a.m. Nov. 1. After she headed for home, the driver went northbound on Blackstone to eastbound Cossitt Avenue. He was described as having brown hair and wearing a sweathshirt and jeans and could have been the same man seen stealing from a Dumpster. He did not say anything to the girl. But while a neighbor saw what appeared to be someone taking what seemed like a bag out of the trunk and disposing of it.
On Halloween, someone dressed like comedian Mike Meyers was seen walking down the street looking into cars in the 600 block of Spring Avenue shortly before 5 p.m. Police said the 45-year-old man said he was just walking his kids trick-or-treating.
A man who reported his vehicle had been stolen from where he believed he parked it in the first block of Stone Avenue shortly before 6:30 p.m. Oct, 31 later found it at Arlington and Brainard.
The employee of the downtown Starbucks coffee shop, 8 S. La Grange Road, was treated at MacNeal Memorial Hospital in Berwyn. The Brookfield man, who told police his heart was racing, was transported to adnentist La Grange Memorial Hospital for treatment.
No comments:
Post a Comment