The Porter Police
Department is expressing its gratitude to the Chicago PD after CPD officers
apprehended a fraudster in their jurisdiction on Thursday who’s accused of
victimizing a local business.
On Wednesday, the
PPD said, Tilden Enterprises reported that a man purportedly “re-opening” a
restaurant on 95th Ave. in Chicago had used fraudulent credit cards to
purchase equipment and supplies which had already been delivered, late in
November, to the back door of that restaurant.
“At this time,” the
PPD noted, “a substantial loss, in the thousands, is involved.”
Because the suspect
is believed to have been using both a false identity and a disposable cell
phone, PPD Det. John Lane feared it would be “difficult,” to say the least,
in actually identifying him.
As luck would have
it, however, Tilden Enterprises was scheduled to make another delivery to
95th Street on Thursday. In advance of that transaction, Lane contacted his
counterparts in the Chicago PD, which arranged for officers to be on the
scene to intercept the suspect, who was subsequently identified by a Tilden
Enterprises employee as the man who’d made the fraudulent purchases.
The suspect was
then taken into custody by the CPD “as he attempted to leave the area and
blend in at a CTA bus stop,” the PPD said.
Turns out, the
restaurant on 95th Street is not in the process of re-opening at all.
Instead, “the supplies were apparently being loaded into a vehicle after the
deliveries were accepted” and taken to a different location.
The Porter County
Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is expected to formally charge the man next
week and his name will be released at that time, the PPD said.
“Without the
efforts of Tilden Enterprises and the cooperation of the Chicago Police, the
true identity of the perpetrator would not likely have been available and
prosecution not possible,” the PPD noted.
“All persons are
reminded to check their monthly credit card statements when they arrive in
the mail (or more frequently, on line) to verify their charges, as credit
card fraud is very common,” the PPD added.