Plenty of TV shows make us want to gouge our eyes out. But a Joliet area man took it a bit further when he allegedly tried to pry out his uncle’s eyeballs with his thumbs. more ›

Photos from a 2004 lineup, long-sought by the Sun-Times, renew scrutiny of an unsolved murder case involving then-Mayor Daley's newphew, Richard "R.J." Vanecko. more ›

The two officers also were accused of stealing guns and drugs and receiving monetary compensation for their efforts. more ›

Police interviewed several students who said 75-year-old LaDuke unzipped his pants while seated behind his podium and proceeded to masturbate. more ›

Police arrested 21 protesters for trespassing Tuesday, as grassroots demonstrations against economic inequality continue to gain momentum in Chicago and around the U.S. more ›

If you care about cooking on food trucks, you can lend your voice to Let Them Cook. more ›

2nd Ward Ald. Robert Fioretti’s ordinance would expose the disciplinary board’s largely secretive decision-making process to public review. more ›

The police department accounts for about one-third of the city’s corporate budget. But cuts have long been politically thorny in a city struggling with street violence. more ›

Yesterday, police stated that a man with a semiautomatic handgun and several rounds of ammunition attempted to go up to the skydeck at Willis Tower late Friday afternoon. The man, Christopher Irving, was carrying the gun and ammunition along with some magazines in a backpack when security officers searched through his belongings and prevented the man from entering Willis Tower. more ›

By cutting security detail for several top officials, new "Top Cop" McCarthy cut costs by $650,000 and likely pissed off Ald. Ed Burke. more ›

With all the hype and hoopla surrounding "flash mobs" (or not) attacking and robbing people, it somehow doesn't come as a shock to hear that Monday, June 6th was the deadliest day of 2011, at least so far as homicides are concerned. The Redeye reports that 6 people were murdered on Monday, in incidents scattered throughout the city. However, none of the killings took place anywhere near Streeterville, the Gold Coast or any of the sites of the better-publicized assaults. more ›

Here's a story that seems lifted from a sitcom. A woman reacted to an accidental phone call from her husband and called Winnetka police, believing that he was being held hostage at the school district offices where he worked. Let's recap: Winnetka sent a SWAT team to a man's place of employment because the man's wife overreacted to a butt-dialing. more ›

It's not a secret that the Chicago Police Department had a rough year last year, and news of this fatal incident is definitely not a happy way for the Chicago Police Department to ring in the new year. more ›

It's safe to assume a few of us have passed out in a cab before. But how many of us were taken to a police station by the cabbie? And how many of us were holding when said cabbie pulled up to the police station? In short, we're glad we weren't 25-year-old Joseph Andrew Hoffman on Christmas Day. more ›

Bo Hyun Nam, 46, was arrested and charged with four felony counts and one misdemeanor count of selling counterfeit merchandise after police seized more than $40,000 in counterfeit Casio watches, Nike shoes, and professional sports merchandise from his store on Thursday, police said via the Chicago Tribune. Nam was arrested on Saturday afternoon after police carried out a search warrant at his store, A-One Trading, located at 4536 N. Clark Street. more ›

Don't know what it is about Illinois and wrongful convictions, but it seems to happen with frequency here. Jerry Hobbs, was in jail for four years on charges of murdering his daughter and a friend in a Zion park before DNA evidence exonerated him, filed a civil rights lawsuit against the police who took his confession yesterday. Hobbs was arrested in 2005 in the murder of his 8-year-old daughter Laura and her friend, 9-year-old Krystal Tobias, and he served time awaiting trial for the murders until August, when DNA evidence implicated Jorge Torrez, a former Marine who grew up in Zion. Prosecutors knew about the DNA evidence linking Torrez as early as 2006, and the evidence didn't become public knowledge until 2008. Yet they still focused their investigation on Hobbs. more ›

World War II veteran Stanley Letkiewicz passed away the day before Thanksgiving from injuries sustained from a beating allegedly by a homeless person he tried to help. Letkiewicz befriended the homeless man last winter and as an act of kindness, Letkiewicz invited the man to stay in his basement in exchange for household chores and general company. more ›

A 34-year old DeKalb man named William Curl has been charged in the death of NIU student Antinette "Toni" Keller. Curl was a person of interest to the police because he was a frequent visitor to Prairie Park, where Keller's remains were found, and also possibly because he reported a fire in the woods near the park where Keller told her friends she would be. more ›

While Drew Peterson is doing whatever in Will County Jail — probably writing another letter for Michael Sneed to run as a column — Oak Brook police chief Thomas Sheahan has filed charges with the village police and fire commission to have Peterson's son, Stephen Peterson, removed from the force. more ›

Recently, authorities in Cape Town met with Dr. Gary Slutkin, the founder of CeaseFire, in order to figure out a way to quell gang violence in and around Cape Town. Members of the South African community attended workshops to discuss bringing a "pilot project" to Cape Town in the near future that would be modeled after Chicago's own methods. more ›

Alvin Herbert, 50, of the 500 block of Des Plaines in Forest Park, was charged and cited with a dozen different counts after he allegedly tried to run over police officers around 12:40 a.m. early Saturday morning on the 100 block of East 95th Street. Police shot at the tire of Herbert's vehicle as he drove towards them, but no one was hit by gunfire or injured, police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said to the Chicago Sun-Times. more ›

Law enforcement officials announced on Thursday that 55 people were arrested on state and federal charges after a series of successful investigations that targeted narcotics, gangs, and guns probes in Chicago. Members of six street gangs and several drug wholesalers were among those charged. more ›

2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti, who unseated Madeline Haithcock in a hotly contested race in 2007 is now circulating petitions around the city to get on the February ballot for mayor. “Petitions will be circulated in all 50 wards in the next couple of days,” Fioretti told the Tribune. “We are starting a fund-raising campaign.” He's also actively seeking re-election to his aldermanic seat, just in case. more ›

Although crime overall may be down in the city, the murder rate is still rising. This year between January and the end of August, 313 people were killed, which is five more people during the same time period in 2009, Chicago Police officials said via the Chicago Sun-Times. During the same time period, crime decreases occurred in the following categories: sexual assaults (10.1 percent), robbery (14.1 percent), aggravated battery (6.1 percent), and aggravated assault (12.9 percent). Unfortunately, motor vehicle theft increased by 21.2 percent. Police also seized 5,679 weapons--189 more than they seized at this time last year. more ›

Randy J. Caudill, 34, a Downers Grove police officer, who was charged with official misconduct, also allegedly schemed with another man of a way to improperly run license plate numbers to identify suspected drug dealers, and then steal money from them, DuPage County authorities said on Friday. Caudill was charged on Thursday for the crimes and is currently in jail on a $200,000 bail. more ›

Police announced today a major bust on the Northwest Side that involved $5 million in cash and $1.5 million of heroin in what one official called, "definitely the biggest bust of the year for heroin." According to the Tribune: more ›

On Monday, Nakella Harper, 18, was due to start her first day at Triton Community College in River Grove, but her life was unfortunately cut short when she was hit by a car and dragged late Saturday in the Galewood neighborhood. Harper, of the 1000 block of Cernan Drive in Bellwood, was pronounced dead at 11:44 p.m. on Saturday at the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. more ›

On Thursday night, 20 people were arrested in a prostitution sting in Joliet, after the "numerous" complaints that police had received about prostitutes working near Joliet Central High School, according to Cmdr. Al Roechner. "We were concerned about this activity and have spent the last few weeks making arrests and shooing away suspected prostitutes," he said to the Chicago Sun-Times. Between 8:30 p.m. and 1 a.m., undercover police posed as prostitutes and arrested 20 people who stopped to solicit sex. "Stopping this kind of activity is a quality of life issue," Roechner said to the Sun-Times. A list of the arrested individuals can be found here. more ›

To curb teen drinking, northwest suburban Park Ridge has started the Parent Party Patrol program, which teams parents up with police officers to be on call between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. in search of parties that could possibly involve underage alcohol consumption. Once a call comes over the police radio notifying them of a party in progress, the patrol members will head to the scene, observe police actions, and wait until they are potentially called on to explain procedures to parents or help officers notify parents of the underage drinkers. more ›

James Finkl, 46, of the 400 block of West Huron Street, was charged at 10 a.m. on Wednesday for possessing more than 30 unregistered guns, police said. Finkl was charged with 36 counts of having unregistered guns and four counts of having assault ammunition, police News Affairs Officer Ronald Gaines said to the Chicago Sun-Times. Finkl was arrested based on a search warrant police implemented on his house. He is scheduled to appear in court on July 2, police said. An investigation by Near North District police is still underway. more ›