‘I don’t go after the fast kid’
by BETH ALTENA
When you’re looking to do a little automobile B&E, it’s best not to do it a couple yards from the chief of police. Rockford’s Police Chief Dave Jones said the town’s security cameras came in handy when officers observed a pair of teens peeking into cars in the South Squires Street parking lot. When the teens found an unlocked car with a wallet in it, they may have thought they were in luck, but luck was definitely not on their side.
“Someone saw them open the car door and stuff something into their shirt,” one merchant described of the incident.
The police were already on their way. As the two fled the crime scene up onto the White Pine Trail, Chief Jones and a uniformed officer gave chase.
“I’m just a crusty old cop,” Jones said of the incident. “I don’t go after the fast kid, I go after the slow one and make him give up his buddy.”
Jones said the slower runner was captured on Bridge Street.
“He was all deny, deny, deny,” Jones described. “He wasn’t with the other kid. He didn’t know the other kid. I told him, ‘I was watching you on TV two blocks away.’”
When the youngster saw himself and his friend captured by camera scoping out cars, he had no choice but to admit his involvement and the wallet was recovered. Criminal charges are pending. The Rockford Police Department deserves a pat on the back for another good job in fighting crime in downtown Rockford.
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