Sugar Grove police look into teens’ report of suspicious van

Sugar Grove police are investigating a third incident of a suspicious vehicle around youths — this time, at 11:30 p.m. Monday, reported by a group of four teenage girls walking home from the Jewel store at Route 47 and Galena Boulevard.

The girls, ages 13 and 14, told police a dark van drove slowly past them. Nobody in the van said anything to them, nor did anyone make any motions, Detective John Sizer said.

Police suspect the driver may have been a scrapper cruising the neighborhood for recyclables since Tuesday is trash pickup day.

It’s the third such report filed with Sugar Grove police this month; a report of an incident in the Prestbury subdivision was filed with the Kane County Sheriff’s Department earlier Monday.

“We don’t believe any are related,” Sizer said.

Police, while believing the latest incident may be benign, are taking the reports seriously, and still want people to call them when they see something suspicious.

“And the kids are doing what they are supposed to do” — run home and call police, Sizer said.

In the first incident, at 8:15 p.m. June 5, an 11-year-old girl reported a van approached her at McCannon Street and Bastian Drive. The driver motioned to the passenger seat and told her to come over there.

At 4:50 p.m. Monday, a 9-year-old girl who was skateboarding in the Prestbury subdivision reported that a white pickup truck drove near her and a man told her to get into the truck.

The mid-sized truck had a silver toolbox in the bed and black letters on the side and tailgate. The last letter on its license plate may have been an ‘S.’ The driver appeared to be alone, the girl told deputies.