Massive paper dump on Palatine Road
Drivers headed down Palatine Road about noon Thursday got the feeling of what it might be like to ride in a ticker-tape parade at high speeds as thousands of sheets of paper filled the roadway in Wheeling.
“There was a lot, it was unbelievable,” said Wheeling Deputy Police Chief John Teevans.
No one knows who dropped the papers, but Teevans said they looked like they were business-related and in a foreign language — possibly Japanese or Chinese.
The mass of papers was blowing for a nearly two-mile stretch of the 45 mph roadway from Wheeling Road all the way to Milwaukee Avenue, Teevans said.
Wheeling Public Works Department and Illinois Department of Transportation crews were on cleanup duty for most of the afternoon as sheets covered the road and were strewed across lawns.Fire department officials said the roadway sees a lot of truck traffic and the papers most likely blew off the back of an open bed truck.