Hinsdale Man Arrested for Stealing Infant Formula

Edwin Garcia, 41, of 234 Justina in Hinsdale, was charged with misdemeanor retail theft after La Grange Park police said he put five packages of infant formula in his backpack, worth $122.65, and walked out of the Jewel-Osco, 507 E. Woodlawn Ave., without paying for them at about 12:50 p.m. March 13. Police said he told them he was going through an economic hardship and needed the formula for his two children who do not live with him. In his backpack, officers said they found a small bag of cotton balls, a bottle cap and hypodermic needle, and a screwdriver and pliers. Garcia told police he used the tools to fix his bicycle and police did find his unlocked blue Schwinn bike outside the west doors of the store. Garcia had been convicted of felony retail theft in 2009 in River Forest, police said. He faces an April 27 court date.

A Green Bay, WI, woman wanted on a Cook County warrant for prostitution and a Wausau, WI, man wanted on an Illinois state police warrant for failing to appear in court on a charge of driving while his license was suspended, were picked up by La Grange Park police during a traffic stop in La Grange Park at about 4:38 a.m. March 11. Jessica L. Nichols, 22, was released on a $20,000 bond and Kevin C. Mason, 22, on a $3,000 bond. A police officer stopped their rental car at 29th Street and LaGrange Road after reporting it was stopping and turning suspiciously beginning from the 400 block of Beach Avenue and went through two stop signs. The officer reported smelling a strong odor of cannabis from the car.  Police searched Nichols and said they found $473 and a plastic bag of what they suspected was marijuana. The suspected cannabis was destroyed without any charges. The two and one other occupant told police they came from Chicago and were in La Grange Park to drop off a friend but they did not know the friend’s name. An officer gave Nichols a stern warning on driving while her license is suspended and disobeying stop signs, police said. 

A Lakewood man who told Itasca police he was robbed and thrown from a moving vehicle was picked up at about 10:14 a.m. March 13 by La Grange Park police on its department’s warrant for failing to appear in court on traffic charges.  Christopher B. Hayden, then living in Bensenville, had received two tickets Sept. 17 after La Grange Park police said they found he stopped the red minivan he was driving while two other occupants were arguing and the vehicle was hanging over the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad tracks. Layden, 22, refused medical aid in Itasca on March 13 but in La Grange Park complained of pain to his pain and foot, which police found was swollen. He was taken to Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital and was released on bond. He had an odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath that got stronger as the police car approached La Grange Park, officers said.   

A 27-year-old Cicero man, Odilon Mendoza-Mendoza,  was turned over to La Grange police on its warrant for driving while his license was suspended after being picked up  at about 7:55 a.m. March 15 by La Grange Park police in the 900 block of Newberry Avenue. Mendoza was able to post $10,000 bail of a $100,000 bond, was released and faces an April 19 court date, according to La Grange police. A La Grange Park police officer on patrol reported seeing two men hanging fliers on doors in the 900 block of Newberry without wearing visible village permit tags. Neither had a valid permit to be soliciting, police said. The second man was released.

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