Teen At Center Of 2012 City Sticker Debacle Accused Of Car Theft

By Rachel Cromidas in News on May 14, 2015 6:45PM

The 15 year-old artist the city publicly humiliated in 2012 over its city sticker design competition has been charged with felony car theft, according to authorities.

Herbert Pulgar, now 18, was pulled over by police officers Tuesday morning in the 2800 block of North Kedzie Avenue in Logan Square, in a vehicle that had been reported stolen, county prosecutors told DNAinfo. The van crashed into several parked cars in a failed attempt to flee police and Pulgar allegedly continued to flee on foot before being arrested. He was charged with possession of a stolen motor vehicle and received several traffic citations.

Pulgar was a budding-artist in 2011 when he submitted the winning design to the city's vehicle sticker art competition. But days after the city selected Pulgar's design, officials changed their minds due to concerns that the sign featured hands making gang signals. At the time, Pulgar repeatedly denied putting gang signs in his piece and even today police say he has no known gang connections.

Pulgar's mother, Jessica Loor, told a DNAinfo reporter outside the criminal courtroom where Pulgar was arraigned that the charges were not warranted because Pulgar hadn't really been driving the vehicle. The arrest report says police saw two people exit the van.

She said Pulgar has struggled since he was thrust into the public eye by the city sticker debacle and regularly faces threats from local gang members:

"Now that gangbangers think he's [part of a rival gang], they're after him," Loor said, adding that her son isn't in a gang but knows gang members because he's spent his whole life in Logan Square. "He grew up with all the gangbangers in the neighborhood because we live here," Loor said.