According to a police release, Arlington Heights police responded about 3:16 PM Thursday to a report of a suspicious incident at the Marathon gas station, 102 West Northwest Highway Arlington Heights, IL. Police received a report when a witness described that an unknown subject stopped two young boys walking by the gas station. The subject offered the boys money to clean out the bed of his truck. One of the boys stopped, got into the bed of the truck, and began cleaning. The subject stood at the rear of the truck taking pictures of the boy while he cleaned. The subject motioned to the boy to get out of the truck bed. The boy exited the bed of the truck and left on foot. The subject was last seen southeastbound on Northwest Highway in his pick-up.
The subject was described as a male/Hispanic or male/Middle Eastern 6’0″ 250 LBS with a short dark-colored beard, and wearing a white hooded sweatshirt. According to a police release he was driving a blue Chevy pickup truck with chrome wheels with two large blue plastic barrels in the pickup truck bed.
The crime is reported to have occurred on Thursday, February 13, 2014 between 3:00 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.
At about 11:30 a.m. Friday, police released information (The Cardinal Incident on Ridge Ave and Happfield Dr …) of a second incident that police believe was NOT related, even though vehicle descriptions were somewhat similar. At about 3:25 p.m. Arlington Heights police vehicles were headed north on Arlington Heights Road with lights and sirens to a report of an incident involving a pickup truck with similar description in the area of Ridge Avenue and Happfield Drive. The exact details are unknown, but the truck was last seen heading westbound on Happfield Drive near Ridge Avenue.
Yesterday Arlington Heights police put out an alert via the Illinois State Police Emergency Radio Network (ISPERN) about both incidents combined. The message header was “Attempted Kidnapping.”
Apparently after careful investigation by detectives, the cases are NOT being considered attempted kidnapping cases at this time. Both are classified as Suspicious Person incidents.
Anyone having information about this or any other serious crime in Arlington Heights should submit an anonymous text tip by texting the keyword 847AHPD and your message to 847411(tip411) or call Arlington Heights Crime Stoppers at (847) 590-STOP. Callers are guaranteed anonymity and may qualify for a cash reward of up to $1,000.
LIVE TRAFFIC MAP of area suspicious incident at Northwest Highway and Vail Avenue …
Cardinal Note: As of June 5, 2013 — up to and including the date of this article — police incidents related to the above police agency are not reported in real time or within a prompt time period. Police protecting their realm of investigation and police activity, have chosen to use secret military-grade encrypted radios to withhold their police communications, which were previously open to the public and news media via monitoring of public safety scanning radios — with no known negative results locally.
The delayed knowledge or entirely blacked out knowledge resulting from encrypted police communications may protect certain police operations and investigations, but it also puts the public at risk in situations such as when armed and dangerous offenders are at large and when other similar situations occur, such as when desperate offenders of property crimes are eluding police. In other cases, the delayed or blacked out information inhibits or prohibits the possibility of the public providing early witness accounts before a criminal trail goes cold. Citizens are much more likely to recognize or recall suspicious or criminal activity if they are aware of the criminal incident within minutes or hours of its occurrence. The most serious incident involving dire results would be a trail that is allowed to go cold in the case of child abduction.
The lack of real time information from public police dispatch also weakens an effective neighborhood watch program mostly working to prevent property loss, but also working to prevent possible violent crimes.
Police have alternate ways to transmit tactical, operational or investigative information, while still keeping their main public dispatch channels open for the best balance of public safety and police safety.
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