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player ready...A Palos Heights resident was charged Monday with taking $250,000 of freight merchandise, including Sitka boots, children’s Nike shoes and Puma gym shoes.
Almahdi Qasem, 20, turned himself in to the Palos Heights Police Department Friday and was charged Monday with theft of property exceeding $100,000 and not exceeding $500,000 in value, a Class 1 felony in Illinois, according to a police news release.
Police said they previously found stolen merchandise including high-end shoes and boots both at Qasem’s home in Palos Heights and in a storage facility on the 9800 block of Harlem Avenue in Bridgeview.
“Investigators recovered large amounts of stolen merchandise, U.S. currency, two bank accounts linked to the sale of stolen goods, and two vehicles used in the operation,” police said.
Retailer Sitka reported theft of 100 pairs of their hunting boots worth $40,000 in Chicago in May that it linked to online listings for identical boots on online resale platforms Facebook Marketplace and Ebay, police said. A representative for the retailer found the return address was a Palos Heights residence after purchasing a pair of the boots, police said.
Police searches of the online accounts found the account holder was also listing large quantities of items police suspect to be stolen, including Bissell vacuums, Nike and Puma shoes, water tanks, LG computer monitors, headphones and blenders, the news release said.
The stolen Sitka freight was found in the Bridgeview storage unit as was merchandise belonging to Macy’s, Nordstrom, Bissell, Skytech Gaming, and other retailers, police said.
After his arrest, Qasem was released ahead of a scheduled appearance at the Bridgeview Courthouse at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 30. Palos Heights police said he may face additional charges.