Officer Sticky Fingers

By Matt Wood in News on Dec 14, 2005 4:08PM

Two area policemen are in hot water for coming down with a case of kleptomania. Last Friday, an Oak Park officer resigned after allegations surfaced that he had a hand in a semi-truck heist from a Bedford Park loading dock last year. The semi was filled with about $1 million in Samsung plasma TVs and DVD players. Mani Adams hasn't been officially charged yet, but the Oak Park PD and the FBI are investigating claims that he knew the two other suspects and had foreknowledge of the heist. He lives in Oak Park and his garage is just 500 feet from where the truck hit a utility pole while trying to back down an alley. Cell phone records also show that Adams contacted the two other suspects on the day of the heist.

Yesterday, James Chevas, a Wood District patrol officer, was formally charged with misconduct and stealing from an arrestee after he allegedly stole credit cards from a suspect while breaking up a fight in Wicker Park in November and ran up about $1,600 worth of charges. Nik Lohja said that he went to Gold Star on Division to play some pool, then got in an argument and started a fight. When police arrived, they cuffed him, and Chevas apparently snatched his driver's license and credit cards. Lohja got his license back at the station, but never saw the credit cards again. Meanwhile, someone was doing some early Christmas shopping, stopping for gas before going to Target, Toys-R-Us, and PetSmart. Police now have security videos from at least one of the stores showing Chevas using the cards.

We don't know if it's more creepy that a cop would gank our credit cards or that it's that easy to use a stolen credit card around town. Not that we plan on getting arrested any time soon, but whatever happened to matching the signatures and showing ID?