Prospect Heights man guilty of stealing truckload of rat traps from Elgin firm

A Prospect Heights man faces prison for stealing more than $27,000 worth of what prosecutors called “rat traps” from an Elgin firm while working as a contract trucker in September 2017.

Judge Charles Peterson on Tuesday found Andrew A. Schwartz, 31, of the 700 block of Camp McDonald Road, guilty of felony theft and forgery after a two-day bench trial in late June.

Schwartz's attorney, Scott Kent, plans to ask the judge to reconsider the verdict.

Kent said on Thursday that Schwartz never tried to steal or profit from items, which Kent described as metal and plastic containers of assorted sizes used to house rats and other small animals during medical research.

According to Kane County prosecutors, Schwartz was working as a contract trucker for J.B. Hunt Transport in Elgin on Sept. 29, 2017, when he picked up the truckload, valued at $27,616, in Elgin.

Schwartz was supposed to take the load to Ohio but instead dropped them off at an acquaintance's house in Wauconda and later reported to his employer that he made the delivery, according to prosecutors.

Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Schwartz in early December 2017.

Kent said his client made several routes to Ohio before Sept. 29 and a couple afterward before he was charged.

Kent argued his client took the load of 14 pallets to the Ohio location but it was rejected.

So Schwartz, according to his attorney, took the load back to his cousin's farm in Lake County and the relative donated about half the containers to animal shelters.

Kent contended the matter could be regarded as a civil contract dispute as opposed to a criminal case and argued there wasn't even proof his client possessed the items in Kane County.

“He made no attempt to sell any of the items. He never tried to profit at all,” Kent said. “They weren't stolen. They were donated.”

Kent could not explain why Schwartz didn't just return the items and truckload to the Elgin company.