We’ve learned more about the alleged motives of the man accused of causing widespread damage in a string of axe attacks on property at Chicago firehouses over the past two months, and we now know just how much damage officials think he caused: $130,000.
Chicago cops arrested Jacob Bogdan, 26, around 2:45 p.m. Saturday when they saw him standing in the 200 block of West Cermak Road, directly across the street from the Chinatown firehouse where the crime spree began with an early morning axe attack on February 5.
Now charged with 21 counts of felony criminal damage, Bogdan was ordered detained Sunday afternoon by Judge James Murphy III after prosecutors said Bogdan “carries an axe for protection from firefighters” and had threatened to kill his father, according to court records.
Prosecutors told Murphy that Bogdan used an axe to damage vehicles in the parking lots outside the Chinatown firehouse at 212 West Cermak Road, as well as firehouses at 53 East Pershing Road and 21 West 59th Street in four separate incidents as recently as last week.
He also “violently attacked” the firehouses themselves, using the axe to inflict extensive damage to doors and breaking windows, according to a court filing.
Bogdan, Murphy noted in his detention order, “has problems with firefighters.”
Surveillance video published by Chicago Contrarian showed a man, now identified by officials as Bogdan, wielding an axe and deliberately smashing vehicle windows last week:
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