Police: Men Stole Toilet Paper From Warehouse For Resale At Flea Markets
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) -- A Will County warehouse worker and a now-convicted murderer stand charged with stealing $60,000 worth of toilet paper and plastic utensils from the warehouse.
Elwood police Cmdr. Patrick Kerr said Juan J. Hernandez and William Chaban stole truckloads of merchandise from the Georgia-Pacific facility in Elwood between February and April.
The investigation began May 18 when the company told police pallets of bath tissue and Dixie cutlery meant for big-box retailers were missing.
Police received a tip to look at flea markets in the area, and sure enough, hot items that had been stolen from Georgia-Pacific were being sold by two vendors at Derald's Flea Market in Joliet.
Officers seized about $1,000 in merchandise and learned it had been supplied by Hernandez, 25, an inventory control specialist at the Georgia-Pacific warehouse, police said.
On July 20, police searched two units at a Joliet storage facility and found more than $10,000 in paper products and plastic cutlery, Kerr said.
Hernandez was arrested at his Joliet home on Aug. 23 and charged with theft. He remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Police also learned a truckload's worth of toilet paper stolen from the facility and valued at more than $20,000 had been sold to Bailey's Discount Center in North Judson, Ind. Kerr said five pallets of toilet paper and 10 trays of knives, forks and spoons were recovered.
Chaban, 35, of Lockport, made that sale while awaiting trial for the murder of his mother-in-law, police said.
On June 18, 2007, Chaban strangled Irene Opalinska in the bathtub of her home in the Norwood Park neighborhood on Chicago's Northwest Side. Arrested two months later, Chaban was out on bond at the time of the warehouse thefts.
Chaban was later convicted of murder in June and sentenced to 45 years in prison, which he is now serving at the Stateville Correctional Center.
The Joliet Herald-News contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire
