Cigarette Thief Chased Tobacco Trucks Through Suburbs: Police

A man was arrested Oct. 19 after a witness saw him nab $5,000 worth of cigarettes from the back of a tobacco delivery truck in Riverside.

Jesus A. Sanchez, 34 of the 5100 block of West Drummond Place in Chicago, has been charged with felony theft, , according to Riverside police.

Sanchez is also a suspect in several other western suburbs for cigarette thefts, but those cases are still being investigated.

Officers were called at 9:20 a.m. Oct. 16 for reports of a theft near the 3300 block of Harlem Avenue.

The tobacco delivery truck driver had opened the back of his truck, parked on East Quincy, and walked to the front of a store on Harlem Avenue with boxes of cartons of cigarettes. A man, now believed to be Sanchez, was seen jumping in the back of the truck and taking full boxes, police reported.

As the man ran west on Quincy from Harlem, a witness yelled at him and chased after him. The man had a parked Kia Sorento waiting for him at Delaplane and Quincy, according to police, and he dropped all the boxes of cigarettes and fled east over the tracks toward East Burlington.

The witness took a picture of the car and the license plate, which was traced to an address in Chicago. However, police learned that the cigarette thief had changed his license plate.

The plate used during the Oct. 16 theft lead police to the wrong address. They were able to trace the Kia Sorento to a second Chicago address in the 5100 block of West Drummond Place in Chicago, where Sanchez was arrested Oct. 19 without incident, police reported.

Sanchez told police he changed his license plates many times. He said he used currency exchanges in Chicago that issue plates without requiring a driver’s license or identification, no questions asked. Police are still investigating this part of the crime.

“Our investigation showed that the cigarette trucks were followed from the City of Chicago into the suburbs,” said Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel in a statement. “In the Riverside case, the suspect started following the cigarette trucks at Milwaukee and Belmont until it came to its destination at the 3300 block of Harlem and Riverside. Quick thinking and action by a witness by taking a photo of the vehicle and the license plate is what led to this arrest.”

Photo courtesy of Riverside police.