Police Blotter: Fisticuffs in a Loading Dock; Stolen Plow Blade; TVs Taken

Dirty Laundry

A laundry manager at Advocate Christ Medical Center, 4440 W. 95th St., told police that a former employee punched him in the loading dock. Travon L. Smith, 21, of the 8400 block of South Drexel Ave. in Chicago, was charged with battery.

According to an Oak Lawn police report, Smith went to collect his last paycheck around midnight Feb. 10. The manager told police that Smith had been fired three days before. The manager and Smith got into an argument. Smith left the building and started walking away through the loading dock, police said. Smith came back and charged him, the manger told police, and a physical fight ensued. The manager said Smith punched him around the face and body. Police noted the manager’s swollen eye and torn shirt, reports said.

Police say Smith told them that as he was leaving, the manager made derogatory comments about his parents. Smith charged the manager “to scare him,” police said.

Smith is scheduled to appear in court in Bridgeview on April 8.

Snowplow Blade Swiped

The 47-year-old owner of a plow company hired by Oak Lawn Community Church, 9000 S. Ridgeland Ave., reported to police that someone had stolen the blade to his snowplow. The snowplow owner said the pin to the blade broke on Feb. 10 and had to be repaired. The man left the blade behind in the church parking lot. When he returned a few days later with the pin to mount the blade, it was gone, reports said. According to the plow owner, the church told him they had hired someone else to finish plowing the lot. The owner thinks someone stole the blade, police said.

TVs Stolen

A 33-year-old man returned to his home on the 10000 block of South Marion Avenue around 8:40 p.m. and discovered that the TV in his living room had been stolen. The victim told police that the TV from the bedroom also was missing and that dressers appeared to have been rifled through. Someone went through his kids’ rooms as well, the report said. A neighbor told police he saw a man in his early 20s with greased-back hair walking down the street with a TV in hand. The neighbor could not see the man’s face because of the TV.