CHICAGO — A Venezuelan citizen living at a downtown migrant shelter was carrying nearly $2,000 cash when Chicago police arrested him for jumping a turnstile at the Lake Red Line station, according to his arrest report.
It happened as CPD Mass Transit officers were conducting a “platform check” at the station, 188 North State, on September 19.
Officers said they saw Manuel Ibarra Labrador, 28, hop the station turnstile, walk down to the platform, and board a Red Line train around 12:50 p.m.
After removing him from the train, the officers took him into custody for misdemeanor theft of services. They said he was carrying $1,863 cash. That’s enough to pay for 745 rides on the “L.”
It’s the second brush with Chicago police for Labrador, who listed a home address at the Standard Club migrant shelter, 320 South Plymouth. On May 25, he was cited for drinking on the public way outside the shelter. That charge was dropped in July.
Itchy and scratchy
The Chicago Department of Public Health shuttered a Northwest Side police station this week after one of the migrants living in its lobby contracted scabies, NBC5 reported Tuesday.
Scabies is an intensely uncomfortable skin condition caused by mites that burrow under human skin and then reproduce. Contracted through physical contact, scabies causes extreme itching and can be misdiagnosed as dry skin or another harmless condition.
Last week, an ambulance responded to the Jefferson Park (16th) District station for a 3-year-old migrant who was suspected of having scabies. It is unknown if the child’s suspected case is the reason for the station’s temporary shutdown.
NBC5’s report said the station was expected to reopen at 8 p.m. last night. Migrants staying in the station’s lobby were relocated to other shelters.
