Crime & Safety

Possible Pipe Bomb Found in Suspicious Incident: Police Blotter

Downers Grove police reports, Aug. 13-26

MONDAY, AUG. 26

Possible Pipe Bomb Shut Down

The DuPage County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad was called in to inspect a suspicious bag at Pershing and Chicago avenues, police said.

The blue Princess Cruises duffel bag was first spotted at the corner of a resident's property at noon, according to a police report. The resident decided to call police at 3:57 p.m. since no one came to pick it up.

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An officer looked into the bag and saw broken glass, a yellow belt, a green crochet pot and a white plastic pipe at the bottom. The ends of the plastic pipe weren't visible and the items appeared at first to be discarded property with no valuables.

"Due to the way the items were positioned in the bag I believed the white plastic pipe at the bottom may be a pipe bomb," the officer said in the report. "The items in the bag would have needed to be moved in order to observe the ends of the pipe and could have been linked to a trigger device."

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At this point, the Sheriff's bomb squad was contacted. The squad used a robot to destroy the plastic pipe, which was determined to be hollow. The remaining items appeared to be Christmas decorations, the report said.


Silver Schwinn Stolen

Someone stole a $300 silver Schwinn bicycle from the 5100 block of Mochel Drive. The incident occurred sometime between 10 p.m. Aug. 25 and 7:30 a.m. Aug. 26, according to a police report. The owner said the bike was locked to a bike rack when the incident occurred. There were no suspects or leads. 

Suds in the Depot Fountain

A Village of Downers Grove employee said someone poured some sort of soap into the Main Street Depot fountain and it was now filled with soap suds. The incident occurred sometime between 2:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. on the 1000 block of Burlington Avenue, police said. Using $40 worth of "de-sudsing" solution did not work, so the employee had to shut the fountain off so it could be cleaned and the pump checked for damaged. There were no leads or suspects at the time of the report.

TUESDAY, AUG. 13

Coolant Reservoir Lifted From Prius

A $1,500 coolant reservoir was taken from the engine compartment of a Toyota Prius on the first block of Tower Court. The incident occurred sometime between 10 p.m. Aug. 12 and 7 a.m. Aug. 13, according to a police report. The unknown offender cut a hole in the driver's side front corner of her vehicle's plastic bumper to get to the reservoir, causing an additional $1,500 in damages, the report said.

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Police Blotter information is provided by local law enforcement agencies. Charges are not evidence of guilt. They are a record of police actions taken on a given day, and persons charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. If you or a family member are charged or cited and the case is subsequently adjudicated, we encourage you to notify the editor. We will verify and report the outcome.


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