Man's Tricycle Stolen Outside McDonald's Replaced, Suspect Charged

PALOS HEIGHTS, IL — A terrible wrong was righted after the Palos Heights community rallied around an elderly neighbor whose three-wheel bike was stolen while dining inside the McDonald’s at 71st Avenue and 127th Street.

John Cronin, 65, is known around the neighborhood for peddling his adult tricycle everywhere around Palos Heights. It is his lifeline to independence.

Palos Heights police took a report Oct. 8 for the theft of an adult tricycle belonging to an elderly man with special needs.

“It tugged at my heartstrings when we found this happened and had happened to him,” Chief Bill Czajkowski told WGN.

So while police were looking for the thief, word spread about the stolen trike.

The Fraternal Order of Police had planned to donate the funds to replace the tricycle, but Richards Bicycles, 11933 S. Harlem Ave. in Palos Heights, stepped up and donated a brand new trike to Cronin, WGN reported.

“I said absolutely! we’d be glad to help him out with that,” said Richard Dziedzic, owner of Richard’s Bicycles.

Cronin also got enough McDonald's gift cards to last him a few months.

Investigators obtained video from McDonalds and area LPRs, where they were able to capture surveillance images of the suspect.

Social media posts and police fliers were distributed. Investigators identified the suspect as Adam Miller, 34, of Markham, by matching his visible tattoos to the surveillance images, police said. Miller had reportedly left Northwestern Palos Hospital earlier the morning of the theft.

Last Thursday, officers were able to recover the stolen bicycle at an address in Midlothian. Miller was arrested at a gas station near 105th Street and Harlem Avenue in Chicago Ridge, where police said his vehicle had been tracked to via plate-reader cameras.

According to Palos Heights police, Miller gave a full post-Miranda confession to the theft. He was charged with theft and given a date at the Bridgeview Courthouse.