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Park Ridge Police: boy kicked man attempting to grab phone
Updated: December 16, 2012 6:05AM
PARK RIDGE — A 13-year-old Park Ridge boy may have managed to avoid being the victim of a robbery when he kicked the man who was attempting to take his cell phone.
Park Ridge Deputy Police Chief Lou Jogmen said the boy was sending a text message on his phone while walking home from school in the area of Ballard Road and Parkside Drive on the afternoon of Oct. 30 when he was approached by a man in his 20s. The man reportedly asked to use the boy’s phone and when the boy refused and placed the phone in his pocket, the man allegedly tried to reach for it. Jogmen said the boy reported that he kicked the suspect and swung his arm at him, causing the man to fall back.
As a woman drove by and honked her car horn at the pair, the man ran east on Ballard Road, police said.
The suspect, described as thin with dark hair and about 5 feet, 7 inches tall, was reportedly wearing a black baseball hat, jeans and a beige “puffy” coat. A witness reported seeing the man exit a black Lexus sedan prior to approaching the boy, police said.
The victim is a student at Gemini Jr. High School in Niles, according to East Maine School District 63 which released an advisory to parents on Nov. 12. The district asked that parents remind their children not to make their cell phones or other electronic devices visible to others when in public.
