Report: East Dundee repo man tried to trick cops into helping him

An East Dundee repo man with a history of mischief in Kane County was in jail again Monday on charges he tried to trick police into doing his dirty work.

William C. Jessup, 47, of the 100 block of Villa Avenue, Addison, is accused of reporting a vehicle stolen last week in the hopes police would find it so he wouldn't have to.

"You can't use the police like that," East Dundee Detective Mike Seyller said. "We are not a repossession office. You can't report a vehicle stolen just so we look for it."

Jessup went to police Thursday to report the theft of a Ford Explorer he said he recently repossessed for a used-car dealer on Dundee Avenue. Seyller said police pulled over the Explorer on Friday, however, and learned Jessup had harassed the registered owner by phone but never carried out the repossession.

"It's unknown if anyone else at the dealership had knowledge of what he was doing," Seyller said.

Jessup was arrested later Friday and charged with filing a false police report, false report of a vehicle theft and harassment by telephone.

Seyller said it was unclear if Jessup worked full-time for the car dealership, which police would not identify. Investigators are still looking into the telephone harassment complaint, he added.

Jessup, formerly of Sugar Grove, has a lengthy criminal history that includes four convictions for telephone harassment in Kane County since 2005 as well as convictions for identity theft and violating an order of protection. In a pending case, he also is charged with making threatening and flirtatious calls to the Kane County Circuit Clerk's office in February around the time he was paroled from Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Ill.

Jessup was being held in the county jail on $35,000 bond. His next court date is Oct. 22.