Well-known Addison shopkeeper (and one-time presidential candidate) mulls retirement after robbery

Ed Gombos has a story about everything.

Which is fitting since his 7,000-square-foot Addison USACO silk-screening shop — tucked into a nondescript business park along South Addison Road — has just about everything in it.

There are the track suits once worn by U.S. Olympians, letters from various silver screen icons, including Charlton Heston and Robert Redford, a collection of T-shirts too numerous to count, books, photos, memorabilia from his ill-fated presidential run in 1996, as well as a wooden door that he is trying to sell for $100,000 because he believes it is adorned with the image of Jesus Christ.

“Someone sold a tortilla with Jesus’ face on it for $38,000,” he explained. “This is a whole door with His image.”

So far, though, no takers.

Not even thieves bothered it when Gombos was robbed of $10,000 last month.

“That was devastating,” Gombos said by phone last week. “It was a bunch of guys who had filled a pothole in the parking lot for me.”

Gombos said he hired the crew in April after they showed up at his shop and offered to fill in the sizable hole for $1,000. He talked them down to $200, even though that type of repair is not his responsibility as a tenant.

After the job was done, he invited the four workers inside to show off his wares and offer them some T-shirts.

“I gave them some and they bought a few, too,” he recalled. “A few days later, in May, they called me back and said they wanted to come back and buy some more T-shirts.”

This time three guys returned in the same black pickup hauling an asphalt trailer and wearing masks. They rummaged through his store where one of them found where Gombos kept his cash and made off with it, he said.

Addison Police Chief Roy Selvik said the case is a high priority for the department and is being treated as a “ruse entry burglary.” Detectives have canvassed the area looking for surveillance video that might show a license plate or provide a better description of the vehicle as well, he added.

It’s the latest setback for Gombos, who has spent the majority of his time at his shop since he first opened it in 1976. He has been renting on a month-to-month basis since the building was sold nearly four years ago, and the current landlord is looking to make improvements that would require him to vacate.

“That’s the current issue I’m dealing with,” he said.

He said he’s open to the idea of liquidating his shop and retiring, but the eclectic items at USACO aren’t really germane to a single buyer.

Gombos also took a self-imposed vow of poverty, selling his merchandise at such deep discounts that he rarely had to deal with any profits. He is widely known among suburban school athletic programs for selling T-shirts at meets and matches for $7 and then donating $2 from each sale back to the schools. He would also visit Hines Veterans Hospital and area children’s hospitals to hand out free T-shirts to patients.

Some in town refer to him as Addison’s “Forrest Gump” because of all the random encounters he’s had with celebrities throughout his life.

“He’s done some amazing things with his life,” his daughter Debbie said. “It’s really very honorable.”

But she also worries about her father working just as hard as he ever has as Gombos nears 90.

“We’ve been very blessed that so many at the village have taken the time to check in on him, and some of the coaches he’s encountered over the past 40 years have been so kind to him,” she added.

Gombos, a decorated gymnast in his youth who once competed on the University of Illinois’ men’s gymnastics team, is hopeful he can find someone interested in the merchandise he has, as well as the “museum quality” memorabilia he also stores at his shop.

“If I can,” he said, “I would be willing to liquidate.”