A man who is on probation and on parole was arrested early Friday after he was allegedly caught in the act of stealing a catalytic converter on an Edgewater street. But there’s a little more to this story.
Catalytic converter thieves are notoriously slippery and are rarely caught. But cops got the jump on a crew that was seen stealing car parts for over an hour around Edgewater and Andersonville on Friday morning.
Witnesses saw a crew escape in a red Chevy Impala after stealing (or trying to steal) converters from cars on the 5300 block of North Winthrop around 2:45 a.m.; the 6100 block of North Ravenswood around 3:50 a.m.; and the 1200 block of West Glenlake around 3:55 a.m., according to dispatch records.
Cops got to the Glenlake call quickly enough to see the red car speeding away and two men running away from a Toyota Prius that was lifted on a jack, according to a police report.
Officers located one of the men who ran away in a nearby yard and took him into custody. A CPD spokesperson said charges are pending. Interestingly, detectives have been trying to locate the man because they want to talk to him about a recent homicide.
Police also found a second man hiding in a trash can near the Granville Red Line station, but officers who disrupted the catalytic converter theft could not confirm that he was the second person who ran from the scene.
We’ll continue to follow developments for you.
Last month, a concealed carry holder shot and killed a catalytic converter thief who opened fire on him in Lakeview. Two of his accomplices, who left a car jacked up with its catalytic converter dangling beneath it, escaped in a Dodge Durango.
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