Stolen Car Crashes; Ring Snatched; Drugs At Park, Plaza: Blotter

WILMETTE, IL — The following information comes from the Wilmette Police Department as a record of police activity and those arrested by police. Criminal charges represent merely accusations by the state and are often dropped or reduced. Anyone named below is innocent unless their guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt in court.

INCIDENTS

FORGERY
An employee of the Skokie Valley Baptist Church reported at the end of June that 13 fraudulent checks worth nearly $15,000 had been drawn from the church's account.

STOLEN CAR
Someone stole a Hyundai from the 700 block of LaCrosse Avenue sometime prior to 4:20 a.m. on June 30. The keys had been left inside the car. Keys to another vehicle and a business, as well as a garage door owner were also stolen.

STOLEN CAR SPOTTED
Police got word of several car burglaries and an attempted home burglary in Lake Forest and Highland Park around 12:30 a.m. on July 10. The vehicle involved was a gray VW Passat reported stolen out in Chicago a week earlier. Police noticed it speeding southbound on I-94 at Half Day Road. The same vehicle was later involved in a smash and grab burglary in Skokie on July 4. A Wilmette officer noticed the stolen VW around 1:44 a.m. on July 10 headed west on Lake Avenue near Wagner Road in Glenview with five people inside. Police did not pursue and it was last seen speeding onto southbound I-94.

CAR BURGLARIES
Burglars rummages through two cars in the 4000 block of Fairway Drive sometime prior to 2 a.m. on July 10.

CRIMINAL DAMAGE
A school district employee reported on July 11 that someone had damaged three air conditioning units on top of a school in the 500 block of Hunter Road between May 28 and July 11 by bending metal sheets protecting the intake of air.

CAR BURGLARY
Someone stole numerous tools from a work van in the 2600 block of Lake Avenue between 7 p.m. on July 12 and 7:30 a.m. on July 13. The thieves were thought to have tampered with the lock on the rear door.

THEFT
Someone stole an Amazon package delivered between 8 a.m. on July 16 and 2:30 p.m. on July 17 from the front porch of a home in the 900 block of Greenleaf Avenue. The box had about $25 worth of merchandise.

RUSE BURGLARY
A man purporting to be a tree trimmer approached a resident of the 2700 block of Birchwood Avenue on July 17 around 12:15 p.m. and claimed to be working on a neighbors house. The resident returned to his house and put his groceries inside and met the "tree trimmer" in the back yard but forgot to lock the front door. A little while later, the man came back inside two find two men heading out. The three burglars left in a black pickup truck and was last seen heading westbound on Lake Avenue. They reportedly stole cash, checks, debit cards a passport and other identification.

STOLEN CAR FOUND
A Hyundai sedan stolen between June 29 and 30 was found on July 17 in the 8000 block of South Wabash Avenue in Chicago.

JEWELRY THEFT
The owner of a clothing store in the 1100 block of Central Avenue reported at 2:14 p.m. on July 19 that a woman, described as 150 pounds, about 58 years old and white, came into the store shortly before closing. The owner recognized the woman as someone who had previously shoplifted from the store. The woman tried on a gold ring worth $100 before handing the empty box back to the store owner. The thief drove away west on Central Avenue in a black SUV, possibly a Mazda, with plates ending in A64 or 66.

ARRESTS/CITATIONS

Ashley A. Luksik, 33, of the 3500 block of Lake Avenue in Wilmette, and Jason K. Krzak, 40, of the 8400 block of Austin Avenue in Morton Grove, were arrested following a brief pursuit on July 1 after police were called to a home burglary in process around 11:41 a.m. in the 900 block of Romona Road. Read More...

Around 2:50 a.m. on July 2, Wilmette police assisted an officer from the Kenilworth Police Department who was attempting to stop a vehicle reported stolen out of Monee in the area of Cumnor and Green Bay Road. During a pursuit, the driver of the stolen car lost control in the 200 block of Hibbard Road and struck a tree. Five people inside fled on foot. One escaped and four were arrested:

Darion Blackman, 22, of the 2700 block of West Flournoy Street in Chicago, was arrested and charged with one felony count of aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle. He was also cited for various traffic offenses. Three passengers were also arrested in the same incident and charged with various misdemeanors. Keir Donaldson, 19, of the 6500 block of South Drexel Avenue in Chicago, was charged with criminal trespassing to vehicle and resisting arrest. Darious Brooks, 19, of the 10600 block of South Yates Avenue was charged with criminal trespassing to vehicle and resisting arrest. Traevon Hall, 20, of the 6800 block of South Ridgeland Avenue in Chicago, was also charged with criminal trespassing to vehicle and resisting arrest.

Alfredo Troncoso, Jr., 20, of the 800 block of 2nd Avenue in Des Plaines, was arrested on July 11 charged with possession of a controlled substance after he was found with nearly a gram of cocaine. Wilmette police found six people at Gillson Park around 8:30 p.m. in possession of alcohol. In addition to Troncoso, four were issued local ordinance citations and released to their parents and one was released without charge.

James Terrell, 50, of the 2700 block of West Harrison Avenue in Chicago, was arrested on July 13 after police were called to the Edens Plaza around 12:53 p.m. for a report of a man doing drugs around the parking lot. Terrell had about 1.5 grams of suspected heroin and drug paraphernalia and admitted to recently using heroin. He also had a warrant for parole violation.

Alexis Czarnecki, 27, of the 53100 block of Poppy Road in South Bend, Indiana was arrested on July 15 and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and with a blood alcohol concentration above 0.08 after she was pulled over for a traffic violation and suspected of being drunk. She failed sobriety tests and produced a breath sample indicating more than twice the legal limit of alcohol.

Gerardo Guifarro-Vargas, 27, of the 1200 block of North Avenue in Waukegan, was arrested on July 17 by the Lake County Sheriff's Office on a bond forfeiture warrant connected to a 2017 domestic battery arrest in Wilmette.

Russell A. Boykin, 57, of the 4100 block of West Cornelia Way in Chicago, was arrested on July 18 and charged with burglary after a resident of the 600 block of Laramie Avenue witnessed him stealing a bicycle. MORE: 76-Year-Old Catches Garage Burglar In The Act

» Last Month: Identity Thief Manages To Secure $290,000 In Loans: Wilmette Police Department June Blotter

Police offered the following tips to prevent ruse burglaries:

Police released the following information ahead of Illinois Speed awareness day:

During Illinois Speed Awareness Day on July 25th, the Wilmette Police Department is taking a proactive approach to promote safety for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists through both education and enforcement.

For the second year in a row, the number of people killed in crashes on Illinois roads has gone over 1,000. IDOT said preliminary figures indicate 1,080 people were killed in crashes in 2017, two more people than 2016. That compares with 924 and 998 traffic deaths respectively in 2014 and 2015.

Speed is a major contributor to the cause of accidents and significantly increases the chance of injury and/or death. In 2016, crashes involving speed accounted for 32.6 percent of overall crashes, 33.2 percent of fatal crashes and 37.8 percent of injury crashes.

• 83.9 percent of fatal crashes occurred on dry roadways.
• 49.4 percent of fatal crashes occurred during daylight hours.

The Wilmette Police Department encourages drivers to follow the speed limit to protect themselves, their passengers and those with whom they share the roadways.

In residential areas, speeding can have the following consequences:

• When a pedestrian is hit by a car at 20 mph there is a 10 percent likelihood of being killed. At a speed of 30 mph, the percentage increases to a 50 percent likelihood of being killed.
• The higher the speed at impact, the more severe the injuries sustained.
• About 37 percent of the speed-related crashes result in injuries.
• When speeding there is a greater chance that other road users will misjudge how fast you are traveling.
• Speeding extends the distance required to stop a vehicle in emergency situations.
• Speeding reduces a driver’s ability to navigate safely around curves or objects in the roadway.

On July 25th the Wilmette Police Department will do their part to keep our roads safe and ask that you obey the speed limit every time you get behind the wheel.

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