Teen charged with theft, drugs in South Elgin

A teenage runaway is accused of bolting from police Sunday with a backpack full of drugs after stealing more than $400 in merchandise from the South Elgin Best Buy, police said.

DeShawn T. Mitchell, 17, whose last known address was the 200 block of North Gifford Street, Elgin, was charged with felony retail theft, felony marijuana possession and misdemeanor theft. According to a police report, at 10:30 a.m., Mitchell left the Best Buy on Randall Road on a red bicycle, which he stole from a 12-year-old boy in Elgin, without paying for two prepaid phones and memory cards that had a total value of $460.37. An officer found Mitchell near the 1000 block of McDonald Road, at which point he dropped the bike on the side of the road and ran. A half-hour later, police arrested him at Umbdenstock and McDonald roads, with 20 grams of marijuana wrapped in 25 plastic bags inside his backpack. The bag also contained the stolen merchandise and the black sweatshirt Mitchell had taken off to elude police.

It was not the first time Mitchell has run into trouble with the law.

During a bond hearing Monday morning, Mitchell told Kane County Judge Bruce W. Lester that he served 74 days in the county Juvenile Justice Center for a 2008 residential burglary charge that was later reduced to a misdemeanor.

Lester set Mitchell's bond at $8,000, which means he needs $800 to get out of jail.

His is due in court Nov. 12 at the Kane County Judicial Center.

He could spend between two and five years in prison, if found guilty of the more serious felony charge, which in this case is retail theft.