Police were dispatched to the 7-Eleven on Harlem Avenue for a retail theft on Jan. 5 around 11:30 p.m. The complainant said he saw a man take a smartwatch charger and pack of batteries without paying. Police located a subject matching the offender’s descriptions waiting outside the CTA Green Line Station at 1 S. Harlem Ave., but he entered the station when he saw police.
A CTA employee told police that the man jumped the turnstile, and police chased him up to the North end of the platform, where he stopped running. Police removed a kitchen knife from his hand and detained him. They recovered a stolen charger and box of batteries from his pockets, estimated to be worth about $43 together. Police also saw a foreign object in the man’s mouth, which they asked him to spit out to find a small Ziploc bag with suspected heroin in it. The stolen items were returned, and the man was charged with retail theft and possession of a controlled substance.
Retail theft …