Sleeping In Steak N Shake's Dumpster: Joliet Police Make Arrest

JOLIET — One month after Joliet Patch reported how a group of homeless people have trashed multiple empty business properties along Larkin Avenue, Joliet Police have made an arrest. They arrested 43-year-old Joliet resident Joshua Self at the empty Steak N Shake at 201 Larkin Ave.

Self was arrested and given his Notice to Appear on charges of criminal trespass, obstructing identification, and a Grundy County arrest warrant

According to Joliet police spokesman Dwayne English, at 8 a.m. Thursday, officers completed a premise check at 201 S. Larkin Ave. at the closed Steak N Shake following past complaints of transients trespassing upon the property.

While the 0fficers checked the location, they found a man asleep inside the dumpster.

Upon waking the man, he attempted to provide a false name and date of birth.

Officers placed the man into custody for trespassing and were able to successfully identify him as Joshua Self. Police determined that Self held an active Grundy County arrest warrant for failing to appear in court on previous traffic charges.

On Sept. 12, Joliet Patch broke another exclusive story, revealing that for the second time in the past two weeks, city of Joliet crews found themselves being called to the vacant Steak N Shake property on Larkin Avenue after readers notified Joliet Patch that two adjacent business properties have turned into filthy public nuisances.

Joliet's neighborhood services department had crews on the site, removing piles of garbage and materials strewn across the property behind the empty strip mall where the old JJ Fish & Chicken fast-food restaurant used to be. The entire strip mall has sat vacant for at least three or four years ago.

In addition to the squalor behind the JJ Fish strip mall, several homeless people had beds and living space where the garbage bins used to be kept behind the permanently closed Steak N Shake. The Steak N Shake will be torn down in the coming months to make way for Joliet's second Chick-fil-A double-drive-thru restaurant.