$3,007 Seizure For Shorewood Home Depot Thief: Forfeiture

SHOREWOOD, IL — Norman Chappelle, a 44-year-old man from Chicago, may lose $3,007 in cash to the police, according to a new civil forfeiture complaint from the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow.

On Aug. 7, four Shorewood police officers arrested Chappelle after he stole $2,438 worth of merchandise from the Home Depot at Route 59 and Black Road, according to court documents.

Will County prosecutors say Chappelle stole the following items:

• 1 $546 Toro lawn mower
• 2 Milwaukee 8.0V batteries worth $398
• 2 DeWalt 9.0V batteries worth $438
• 1 Milwaukee 12.0V battery worth $219
• 1 Keighley LED Crystal Island worth $219.

"The Loss Prevention officer had reported at least 12 previous retail thefts involving Chappelle to Detective Frazier of the Shorewood Police Department, (who) was presently conducting an ongoing investigation into those thefts," the forfeiture complaint noted.

At the time of his Aug. 7 arrest, Chappelle had one warrant out for his arrest on a burglary charge from Cook County and Shorewood police had two other warrants out for his arrest "which Shorewood officers could not service due to geographical limitations," court documents note.

On Aug. 7, Chappelle had a white Dodge Ram Promaster with Michigan license plates parked near the lawn and garden area of Home Depot. The van was registered to Hertz, prosecutors noted.

After the Hertz van left the Home Depot and headed south on Route 59, several Shorewood police officers followed it, stopping the van near Route 52. As police detained the woman driving it for questioning, Chappelle "ran east into the middle of Route 59," court documents show.

Chappelle struck one of the Shorewood officers in the chest with his palm while trying to run past him, but with the help of three other officers, Chappelle was arrested, the complaint stated.

Inside Chappelle's right front pocket, the Home Depot retail theft suspect had a black folding utility knife, a Chase bank envelope with $2,000 inside plus $1,007 in loose cash inside the pocket and his wallet, court records state.

Will County Jail logs show that Chappelle remained in custody Dec. 15. His bail is $625,500. In the Shorewood incident, Chappelle was charged with felony retail theft and aggravated battery to a peace officer. Meanwhile, Chappelle still faces several pending criminal charges in Will County from 2018 and 2020 including the theft of Toro snowblowers from the Home Depot in Bolingbrook, an arrest Patch wrote about three years ago.

A hearing on the $3,007 cash forfeiture is set for Feb. 9 at the Will County Courthouse.