Reporter returns with stories, not bags after Woodfield shift

A hearty thank you to Schaumburg Police Officer Scott Tillema, who proved a gracious host on my Citizens Police Academy ride-along in spite of the stress and quickly shifting nature of his job.

The ability to transition seamlessly from one public duty to another was certainly called upon during the hours I spent with him on a recent Sunday afternoon.

Tillema's current beat takes in Illinois' most popular tourist attraction -- Woodfield Mall -- which is enough by itself to distinguish Schaumburg from most other places from a law enforcement perspective.

Tillema patrols both the parking lot and interior of the mall. He'd already transported one shoplifting suspect to the police department when I joined him there and we returned to Woodfield.

It wasn't long before the next call came in.

A helping hand: While three young children who'd temporarily lost sight of their mom and aunt sounds rather typical, it can be a tough situation from the perspective of a police officer's responsibility to resolve things.

But Tillema never let that show to the kids, providing a comforting presence by letting them know they'd done the right thing in contacting authorities and trying to gently learn as much about them as possible.

And when the two women were located, he had to evaluate the kids' reaction to these potential strangers as well as hear the adults' explanation of what happened --judging how irresponsible or accidental it was.

Still, it was better that it was parents, not kids, missing.

Painful life lesson: That situation was no sooner resolved than there was a call to the main area of the mall where two junior high girls were reportedly shoplifting from various stores.

While Tillema had been called upon to be kind and friendly only moments earlier, here he had to become a stern authority figure.

The girls' first inclination -- and second and third as well -- was not to come clean about what they'd done. But they were eventually persuaded that things would only get worse for them going that route.

Rather than giving up the perfume and jewelry they'd stolen right away, they ended up being marched around the mall in handcuffs to return all the merchandise in person.

Their visit to the mall ended with their being photographed by Woodfield security and banned from returning for a year.

While being processed at the police station, the girls were asked whether they knew the difference between right and wrong, whether they thought the attention they were demanding was a good use of police resources and what kind of adults they wanted to be.

For the rest of their lives, Tillema told them, they'd have to answer "yes" to the question of whether they'd ever been arrested.

And if getting the third degree from a police officer wasn't bad enough, their distraught and furious moms then came to collect them.