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| Coleman (Chicago Police Dept) |
A 20-year-old Woodlawn man is charged with stealing a woman’s cellphone at the Belmont Red Line station last week in a caper that sounds remarkably similar to another theft case that he was involved in as a resident of The Crib youth shelter, 835 W. Addison, last summer.
In the latest case, a 22-year-old West Ridge woman reported that a man snatched her cellphone shortly before noon Wednesday at the Belmont station. A suspect matching the woman’s description was found in an alley behind the 3200 block of N. Sheffield.
That man, Deangelo Coleman, is now charged with theft. Officers said that Coleman told them that he ditched the woman’s phone in a garbage can along Clark Street. Police recovered the device.
Last September, while Coleman was living at The Crib, a Schaumburg man walked into the nearby 19th district police station to report that someone had just snatched a tablet from his hand and the offender may have run into a nearby church where The Crib was setting up for the night.
Officers found Coleman sitting on the steps of The Crib with the victim’s tablet in his hand, according to a police report. Police say Coleman claimed to have found the tablet lying in the grass after someone named “Maleek” stole it.
Coleman was charged with theft of lost or mislaid property, but the charges were dropped when the victim failed to show up in court.
Coleman was granted deferred prosecution on January 13 in a suburban shoplifting case that accuses him of stealing hats, shorts, pants, and a nightshirt from Macy’s in Old Orchard.
Three days later, he was arrested after a South Loop convenience store accused him of stealing a ski hat, court records show. The case was dropped when the store failed to show up in court.
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