A 25-year-old Chicago man made up a story about getting robbed at knifepoint earlier this month because he was running late for a court date in Kendall County, according to Aurora police.
Tyrees Rodriguez, 25, of the 1600 block of East 67th Street, Chicago, called 911 about 8:15 a.m. Oct. 4 and said he’d been robbed after getting off a Metra train at the downtown Aurora Transportation Center on the 200 block of North Broadway, police said in a statement Thursday via Facebook.
“When officers responded, some of Rodriguez’s statements weren’t adding up,” police stated. “However, they were going to take a police report.”
An officer reviewing security video found it disproved that a robbery had actually taken place, police said.
It turned out Rodriguez had a court date in Yorkville, where records show he was supposed to appear at 9 a.m. Oct. 4 for a hearing related to a 2013 felony retail theft. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was initially sentenced in 2014 to 24 months of probation with reporting to court services and returning to court, plus 100 hours public service and about $500 in restitution. Since then, his sentence has been amended at least twice for apparent probation violations.
“He didn’t know how he was going to make it on time so he made up the robbery in an attempt to cover his tardiness,” police said in the statement.
Rodriguez was booked in the Kane County jail two days later, on Oct. 6, and remains in custody there in lieu of $3,000 bail. He’s next due in court Friday in St. Charles on two class 2 felony charges, a disorderly conduct and false alarm complaint, related to the robbery report. Court records show he has been assigned a public defender.
“Aurora police take the filing of false police reports extremely seriously,” according to the statement. “They’re an obvious waste of resources and taxpayer money, and take police officers away form actual crime and quality of life issues.”