Man Swipes Cop Car, USPS Truck, Injures Child In Crash: Police

BRIDGEVIEW, IL — Charges are pending for a man believed to have stolen a Bedford Park police vehicle Wednesday afternoon and then carjacked a U.S. Postal Service truck before crashing into a mother and her two young children near 87th Street and Roberts Road. The man is currently in Bridgeview police custody.

The incident unfolded in Bedford Park Wednesday morning, when police said the man was picked up for disorderly conduct. A police spokesman told Patch the man is known to Bridgeview police from past occasions.

A preliminary investigation revealed that the man was able to steal the patrol car and drive it to the Chicago Ridge-Oak Lawn area, where it became disabled sometime in the afternoon. Police said the man got out of the disabled patrol car and forcibly took a mail truck from a postal worker.

The man drove the mail truck northbound on Roberts Road. He crashed into a vehicle driven by a mother with two young children, ages 7 and 4, in the back seat, both in child safety seats. The back end of the car was completely crushed, police said.

The mother and her children were rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. One of the children is said to be in extremely critical condition.

The man’s name is not being released because he has not been formally charged.