Police report

Elgin

Ÿ An Elgin cabdriver told police Thursday he was duped into driving a woman to the 1100 block of Spruce Drive, where he was later robbed, police said. According to police reports, the cabdriver was at the Mobil gas station in the 600 block of Villa Street at 4:37 a.m. when the woman asked if he could take her to an address in the Poplar Creek apartment complex. He parked on Spruce Drive and when he asked her for payment the woman took the keys out of the ignition, opened the door and ran, leaving her purse behind. At that point, a man opened the driver’s side door, put the cabdriver in a choke hold, pulled him out of the car and took a wallet containing $125 out of the driver’s pocket. Two other men joined him and they, as well as the woman, were last seen running south through the complex.

Ÿ A 62-year-old Elgin man told police Thursday that a woman swindled him out of $200,000 on a bogus investment deal. According to police reports, he met a woman in May 2009 and they began corresponding via email and phone but never met in person. In Aug. 2009, she told him that her father had given her 200 kilograms of gold. When it was sold, she said, it would be worth millions of dollars but that various taxes and fees needed to be paid through wire transfers to two banks in Ghana. They were supposed to live together after the money was received and it would then be deposited into his account. Using his personal investments and company 401(k), he paid $200,000 from Sept. 2009 until an unknown date this year.

Ÿ A furnace was reported stolen Thursday from a foreclosed house in the 600 block of Slade Avenue that had been vacant for about a month, according to police reports. Police said there were no signs of forced entry into the house.