Arlington Hts. woman helped police, faces homelessness

A disabled Arlington Heights woman on the brink of homelessness says she is being evicted from her apartment because she helped police capture a suspected bank robber.

On Sept. 30, FBI agents and police from Arlington Heights and Rolling Meadows came to Virginia O'Connor's apartment on the 300 block of North Salem Avenue looking for a man named Alexander Stover. Stover, recently out of jail, was temporarily staying with O'Connor when police came around, saying they wanted to talk with him about a lottery scam.

Stover wasn't there, but some of his belongings were. O'Connor agreed to help, and when Stover returned to the apartment she notified police.

Stover, 58, was arrested without incident. But there was no lottery scam. Instead, police say they had recognized Stover from a surveillance video of a Sept. 29 holdup at the Rolling Meadows TCF Bank. The robber left the bank with more than $7,000.

“I believe in giving people a second chance,” said O'Connor, adding that she never had a romantic relationship with Stover. “I don't ask people for a background check when they come into my apartment. Alex was a drifter, but he kept himself clean and put together. I didn't know he would be dumb enough to rob a bank right after he got out of jail.”

O'Connor, 49, gave police most of the more than $3,600 Stover had given her, telling her it came from a lawsuit settlement. She had spent some of it on groceries.

About two weeks later, O'Connor got a letter from the manager of her apartment building saying her lease would not be renewed, and she should vacate the apartment in November.

The letter said in part, “Arlington Heights police came to your apartment in search of a bank robber who had an extensive criminal record. You said he wasn't home, but he left his clothes there. Three hours later the police returned and took the man into custody from your apartment. For the safety and well-being of our other tenants, we will not renew your lease.”

The letter also claimed O'Connor had ignored warnings about playing loud music.

O'Connor disputes that Stover left his clothes in her apartment — she says he didn't have any clothes when he got out of jail — and said she tried to be sensitive to her neighbors when playing music.

On March 1, O'Connor — still in the apartment, but with the landlord no longer accepting rent — went to court in Rolling Meadows and was ordered to vacate the unit within three weeks.

While she thinks she can store her belongings in a relative's garage, O'Connor doesn't know where she will live. Among the people she's not happy with are the Arlington Heights police officers who did not tell her the truth about Stover's suspected crime and the fact he might have had a gun (he didn't, police say).

“What about me?” she asks. “Did they worry about my safety?”

Police Capt. Nicholas Pecora said they never believed O'Connor was in danger, adding that officers have to be careful about sharing information.

“In a situation like this you never know who is on whose side, and you don't divulge all the facts or let her know that you know,” he said. “In an investigation you play your cards close to your vest and don't know who will betray your trust.”

In November, an Arlington Heights detective wrote a “to whom it may concern” letter for O'Connor, noting her cooperation and saying without her assistance “the apprehension of the offender would have been much more difficult.”

Stover, who faces a federal bank robbery charge, could enter a plea deal March 29, according to court records.

O'Connor, who says she suffers from bipolar disorder and a brain injury from falling on ice a few years ago, among other ailments, calls losing the first apartment she's ever had without the help of a roommate or boyfriend “a horrible bump in the road.”

Her monthly income is $700 in disability pay. She pays $152 toward her monthly rent, with a subsidy from Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County making up the rest. Losing the apartment means O'Connor also loses the CEDA subsidy.

No one at the apartment building management office returned calls or would comment. The Park Ridge attorney listed on O'Connor's eviction notice did not return calls.

Barbara Hyshaw, director of housing for CEDA of Cook County, said the landlord's complaints sound legitimate.

“Virginia has had so many different chances,” Hyshaw said. “We're sorry, considering her disability. He (the landlord) said tenants around her threatened to leave; we felt he was being fair.”

And because O'Connor has recently been living in the unit without paying rent and without an active lease, CEDA will no longer contract with the landlord for that apartment.

“We can't have vacant apartments,” Hyshaw said, since the need for housing is so great.

Over the last year CEDA Northwest received an average of 426 calls per month asking for help with housing, said Executive Director Ron Jordan, the most he's seen during his 21 years with CEDA. Besides the 40 units it subsidizes in the Northwest suburbs, the agency offers counseling, refers to other agencies and can offer limited cash help.

CEDA suggested courses of action for O'Connor, but it cannot give her another rent-subsidized apartment.

Losing the apartment she has been in two years is only the worst of O'Connor's financial issues: She has also lost her phone service for lack of payment and owes hundreds of dollars to the village of Arlington Heights for failing to get a vehicle sticker.

“I'm thinking of getting arrested so I can get three squares a day, but I can't sleep on a cot,” she said. “There's no way I can go to (a homeless shelter). They don't even have cots; they have pads on the floor.”