Cops Nab Parking Meter Thief Tuesday Night
It looks like Chicago’s parking meter bandit has been apprehended, according to Fox Chicago News.
Redefining the term “smash and grab,” West side resident Jeffrey Kaput, allegedly rammed his van into parking meter pay boxes to knock them over and load them in his van.
He was arrested early Wednesday morning, after being pulled over by police late Tuesday night in the 5500 block of West Augusta, following a report of a vehicle matching his van’s appearance colliding with a pay box.
Over the past five weeks, over 20 parking meter pay boxes have been uprooted and stolen on the West and Northwest sides of the city.
Kaput was also hit with drug charges, as police observed the suspect dropping what Kaput described as his “crack pipe.”
His bond was set at $200,000.
The payboxes, which are owned and operated by Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, the current lessee of the city’s 36,000 metered parking system, cost the company about $6000 each to replace.
“There is no comment except to reiterate that the theft of a pay box is a felony and CPM will seek to prosecute the violator(s) to the fullest extent of the law,” said Chicago Parking Meters, LLC spokesperson Avis LaVelle when asked for comment on the matter.
Here’s Fox Chicago’s full story, “Man Arrested for Stealing Parking Meters.”
I guess Jeff Kaput is… well… kaput. So, his M.O. was to go to a pay box, smoke some crack to get the needed superhuman strength, ram it, and load it into the van’s cargo bay. I guess we’ll find out the motive when this bozo goes to trial!
Sounds like he was doing this to get the money in the boxes for his habit.
Damn – how anticlimactic. It would have been much better if it was just a vigilante doing it out of principle…
I kept thinking it was a group of local anarchists pulling these meters out. From time to time, I would look over some of the local anarchist blogs for insight.
But, an idiot with a crack habit actually makes the most sense of any of the possible theories that were thrown around.
Yeah, this IS disappointing.
Despite what y’all were hoping for…
At 6k cost per unit..
Whose going to want to face that Felony charge for civil disobedience’s sake?
Maybe this Cool Hand Luke wannabe will get the boot camp treatment like the one in the movie. At least with his strength, he might stand a fighting chance defending himself in Stateville…
“What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
This man is not a bad Guy he just got into something that took control of his life and it was hard for him to get off of. May God bless him and I hope he can get the help that he needs.