'Lego Bandit' asks DuPage to help pay court fines
Notorious Florida shoplifter and burglar Ignatius Pollara is just a few weeks away from being released on parole from Pontiac Correctional Facility and he's trying to recoup some money from DuPage County on his way out.
In a recent letter addressed to the "Clerk of the Courts," Pollara asks DuPage to give him $5 credit toward his court fines for every day he served in the county jail from July 3, 2015, through April 28, 2017.
At the time of his sentencing, DuPage Judge Liam Brennan waived all court fines. According to court documents, however, Pollara still owes about $1,868 in fees associated with his case. Brennan said the $5 credit cannot be applied to fees.
Pollara was sentenced in April to five years in prison for multiple burglary and retail theft charges followed by an additional nine months in the DuPage jail for two criminal contempt of court convictions.
When he is released from Pontiac on Nov. 17, Pollara will be brought back to DuPage to serve the nine months for the contempt charges.
Once he serves his sentence in those cases, prosecutors said Pollara has a warrant for his arrest waiting for him in Florida because he was on probation on a felony grand theft case when he was arrested in Lombard in 2015.
Pollara's exploits earned him the nicknames "The Lego Bandit" and "Toys R Us Kid" in law enforcement circles.
His reputation also led his probation officer to alert police that Pollara was arriving in Chicago days before he flew into O'Hare International Airport on July 2, 2015.
Once Pollara arrived, authorities said he rented a car and went to 21 stores in the Schaumburg and Oak Brook areas in 24 hours.
At his trial, police officers who formed a task force specifically to track Pollara, testified how they tailed him in and out of many stores and placed a GPS device on his rented vehicle before he was arrested outside a Lombard Hobby Lobby with $80 worth of art pencils and paint brushes stuffed down the back of his pants.
In total, officials said Pollara stole about $450 worth of items during the 24-hour period; the rest of his haul was recovered from his vehicle.