WrinkleInCrime
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- Oct 24, 2021
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just curious if there is any truth to the rumor that the spot the car was found is known by teenage drug users? Have u heard that in Peru? I also think it’s very possible jelani left his car somewhere else in Peru. I have read that Peru does have some stolen car cases in the past few years…so there is some crime of that sort.
That part is true, yes. I have definitely smoked a few blunts in those woods when I was a teen. There is a trail where Jelani's car was found, two trails actually. Both start at the same point which would have been very close to the car; one goes straight up to the YMCA and the other is kind of winding and goes up to the skatepark on the edge of the YMCA property. Note that these are not official trails of any sort, they were just created naturally from people walking on the same spot hundreds of times a month and killing the grass. The YMCA has cameras EVERYWHERE on their parking lot. So the skaters would go to the woods there and smoke weed or chug a couple beers before going back up to the the skatepark. The main purpose of the trails though is to be used as a shortcut for people from the high school or Lasalle to get up to the YMCA quicker (It cuts off roughly 5 minutes of walk-time). I can almost guarantee that at least two people would have passed his car every hour that the YMCA was open (my opinion). The local that spotted the car allegedly saw it being parked and didn't call it in to police until the next day when he noticed it was still there (this is what he claimed on Facebook but the comment has since been removed). So the car was there for at least one day. I'm not sure if the man was being completely truthful though because I think that would mean that the car wasn't parked there until the day after Jelani went missing which could absolutely mean that the car was taken by somebody from somewhere else in the area and moved to the YMCA. But if Jelani or someone he may have been with did park the car by the YMCA and multiple teens would have walked by, evidence may be contaminated if the car was not locked up. If a teen saw that the car was unlocked and saw Jelani's wallet, they could have stolen the wallet which could be why the wallet was found in the opposite direction of the river from the YMCA. I do hear a lot of stories of theft from unlocked vehicles in Peru and Lasalle.
And yes, there surely is crime here but I wouldn't consider it to be much higher than any other town with a similar population. I maybe hear of one or two stolen vehicles per year- usually from a gas station while the owner of the vehicle is inside the store and they left their car running. Just about a week ago, there was a violent car jacking though at the Shell gas station near Walmart in Peru. An adult male ran up to two teens that were sitting in their car after getting gas. A man ran up to them and said "Get out of the car! There's a shooter and you have to run!" The two teens got out of the vehicle and the guy went to get into the driver seat. One of the teens realized he was stealing the car and she ran to the driver seat and tried to pull him out of the car by his shirt. The man stepped on the gas and dragged her for a good 10-15 feet and partially ran her over (she is doing well now and is currently healing at home). He drove the car about 10 miles to Ladd and he stole a chicken truck from an alley and went on his way stealing more cars until he was finally caught and arrested. That was probably one of the worst crimes we have had in this area in a long time but he wasn't actually from the area.
Two Injured During Reported Carjacking In Peru
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