A 17-year-old young man from Chicago was charged with possession of a stolen motor vehicle and deceptive practice April 6 after an investigation by Oak Park police found that the juvenile paid for two vehicles using fake $100 bills. The first incident, which took place March 14 in the 100 block of South Humphrey Avenue, involved the juvenile handing over a stack of counterfeit bills to the victim before grabbing the keys to the victim’s 2003 Infiniti G35.
The investigation found that the juvenile was allegedly the perpetrator in a similar incident that occurred Sept. 21, 2021, in the 100 block of South Humphrey Avenue, for which he was also charged with possession of a stolen motor vehicle and deceptive practice. In that instance, the juvenile also used a stack of fake money in exchange for the title and keys to the victim’s 2012 black Dodge Charger.
The teenager was further charged with two counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking for incidents that took place days apart last August. The victims in both carjacking incidents were Uber drivers. The juvenile allegedly forcibly took a silver Chevy Malibu Aug. 19 in the 100 block of North Taylor Avenue after he told the Uber driver to pull over, ordered him to exit the vehicle and put a gun to the victim’s side. He again posed as an Uber passenger Aug. 23, when the juvenile allegedly held a gun to the Uber driver’s head, ordering him out of his white 2018 Nissan Rogue in the 100 block of South Lombard Avenue.
Detectives found digital evidence, text messages and photographs allegedly connecting the juvenile to the crimes on the juvenile’s cell phone. The boy’s latent fingerprints were also discovered in the investigation. Upon his arrest, he was processed and held at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center.
Aggravated discharge of a firearm
- Someone shot at and shattered a window to a residential building in the 600 block of North East Avenue at 1:59 a.m., April 10. A police investigation into the incident revealed a small bullet hole in a section of wood molding. The estimated damage is $50.
Burglary
- An Apple MacBook Air and credit cards were taken from an unlocked 2017 Chevy Sonic between 9 p.m., April 7 and 1:45 a.m., April 8. The estimated loss is $1,300.
- Someone broke the latch securing a storage unit and removed two window air conditioning units between midnight and 7 p.m., April 10 in the 900 block of South Highland Avenue.
Theft
- The catalytic converter and dealership license plate were removed from a 2015 Nissan NV200 parked behind the entrance gate of Volvo of Oak Park, 1140 Garfield St., between 8 p.m., April 4 and 6 a.m., April 5.
- An ECKO leaf blower was taken from the bed of a pick-up truck parked outside the Village of Oak Park Public Works Center, 201 South Blvd., between 9 a.m., March 29 and 9 a.m., March 30. The estimated loss is $200.
Criminal property damage
- Someone shattered the front driver’s side window of a white 2018 Chrysler Pacifica parked in the 800 block of North Humphrey Avenue between 4:30 p.m., April 5 and 7:02 a.m., April 6.
- The front passenger’s side tire belonging to a red Toyota Camry was punctured between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., April 4 in the 1100 block of South Austin Boulevard.
- The passenger’s side window of a silver 2021 Ford F-150 that was parked outside of a garage in the 1100 block of Roselle Avenue was broken between 10 p.m., April 6 and 6:15 a.m., April 7.
These items, obtained from the Oak Park Police Department, came from reports through April 4 to April 11 and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in these reports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large, and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.
