By Frank S. Abderholden
Lake County News-Sun
WAUKEGAN, Ill. — Videos making the rounds on Facebook show a Saturday night confrontation between Waukegan police and a suspected car thief at a gas station where the suspect refused to get out of the stolen vehicle, and then an officer is dragged a short distance while trying to disable the car or apprehend the suspect before both got away.
“We’re just thankful that no one was hurt and our officer will make a full recovery,” Cmdr. Joe Florip of the Waukegan Police Department said Monday.
“The video does give an accurate account of how non-compliant the driver was,” Florip added. “It is also a good reminder to citizens of Waukegan on how officers put themselves in harm’s way on a daily basis.”
The man who shot the video is a barber based across the street at I’ll Kut 2 U! who asked that he only be identified by his first name, Kenny.
“I just saw the commotion and I have a big front window,” he said, recalling how several police and a police dog approached the vehicle. “I was shocked because people get pulled over all the time here. But this was different.
“I don’t know what happened with the language between (the police and suspects),” he said. “There were other people inside the car. Then he (a police officer) started hitting the window and it broke, and I knew something was going down.”
Kenny said it appeared the initial driver was pulled out of the vehicle, and the driver’s-side door was left open. He said the car was apparently still in drive and started moving, or it was a stick-shift. The officer started to jump into the vehicle when Kenny said he believes someone else inside slid into the driver’s seat and drove off with the officer still half in.
“It happened so fast,” Kenny said. “I was worried for the officer’s safety. He was being heroic in trying to stop the car.”
According to a news release, officers on patrol spotted a vehicle that had been reported stolen around 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the BP service station at 902 Grand Ave. parked next to the street-side gas pumps. As officers approached the vehicle, it fled the scene, the release stated.
In the first of the two short videos shot by Kenny, which are about 15 seconds each and apparently taken from across the street, a K-9 unit and officer try to get the suspect to get out of the car. Toward the end of the clip, an officer can be seen breaking the driver’s side window of the stolen vehicle as a police dog barks.
In the second clip, there is at least one suspect on the ground in custody and the driver’s side door is open. An officer is seen running to the open door, and then suddenly the car pulls away and turns toward the service station building, where it can be heard scraping against another vehicle as it runs out of view and the video ends.
The release said that as the vehicle fled the scene, a police officer was dragged a short distance in the parking lot by the vehicle. Police report the officer, whose name was not released, suffered minor injuries and was treated and released from an area hospital.
Officers pursued the vehicle until they deemed the pursuit was too reckless to continue, Florip said, adding that the stolen vehicle was described as a gray, four-door 2005 Volkswagen with an Illinois license plate of Z84 2693, and that it was last seen in the area of Sheridan and Belvidere roads. The stolen vehicle was originally taken on Nov. 29 from the 700 block of Belvidere, according to the release.
“This is on ongoing investigation,” Florip said. “No further details are being released until we complete the investigation. We are not releasing who is in the car.”
Police said anyone who spots the vehicle should immediately call 911 to report it.