CHICAGO — Randall Brown, a 30-time convicted felon accused of stealing motorized scooters in Lincoln Park and Streeterville two years in the past, is heading again to jail for his thirty first and thirty second felony convictions.
Brown, also called Randall Browning, pleaded responsible on Thursday to 2 counts of possessing a stolen motorized vehicle to resolve the scooter circumstances. Decide Anjana Hansen gave him concurrent six-year sentences.
Nonetheless, as a result of he earned 942 days of credit score in jail, and the state will reduce his sentence by 50% for good conduct, Brown is anticipated to be again on the streets in about 153 days.
Brown had been on parole for lower than a month for ten related circumstances when Chicago police detectives started him as a suspect in a string of scooter thefts stretching throughout the North Aspect and downtown.
They finally charged him with two circumstances that concerned photograph and video proof.
In a single case, a Lincoln Park girl noticed Brown strolling away together with her husband’s scooter on the morning of April 19, 2023. When she ordered Brown to cease, he claimed the $1,400 scooter was his, prosecutors mentioned.
The girl took photos of the thief together with her telephone and shared them on social media.
Days later, a surveillance digicam recorded Brown stealing one other scooter from the 100 block of East Grand in Streeterville. That scooter’s proprietor, Nate Vaysenberg, shared the video with CWBChicago, and it didn’t take lengthy for police and the general public to establish the thief.
Prosecutors mentioned Brown admitted to taking the scooter in Lincoln Park and promoting it to somebody on Central Park Avenue.
That’s the identical operation Brown ran for a number of weeks in 2020—stealing scooters from parking spots and reselling them for a fraction of their worth, authorities mentioned.
Brown acquired ten concurrent 8-year sentences for the 2020 crimes, however he earned particular credit in jail and was launched in lower than three years as a result of he demonstrated wonderful abilities as a mechanic, a supply mentioned.
Brown’s lengthy legal profession as a thief and forger stretches again to 1993.
In an entertaining second in 2016, a Wrigleyville resident referred to as 911 to report two folks making an grownup film in a automotive behind their residence. Because it turned out, the folks within the automobile had been undercover cops utilizing video tools to file Brown as he broke into a close-by coach home. They arrested him when he stepped out of the house.
He acquired eight years for that break-in, a second housebreaking, and identification theft, however he was launched in 2020 after serving 4. Scooters began disappearing from metropolis streets quickly after that. Earlier than these circumstances, Brown went to jail for:
One yr for theft in 2011
One other yr for theft in 2011
Ten years for housebreaking in 2010
One other ten years for receiving/possessing a stolen automobile in 2010
30 months for aggravated impersonation of police in 2005
One other 30 months for theft in 2005
One other seven years for aiding and abetting possession of a stolen automobile in 2005
One other 5 years for forgery in 2005
One other two years for knowingly possessing a pretend license in 2005
4 years for being a felon who didn’t return from furlough in 2001
Six years for housebreaking in 2000.
One other 42 months for housebreaking in 2000
5 years for theft in 1998
Six years for receiving/possessing a stolen motorized vehicle in 1997
Six years for illegal possession of a stolen automobile in 1993
One other three years for receiving/possessing a stolen motorized vehicle in 1993
And yet one more three years for theft in 1993.
