Woman Arrested For Claiming Mom Was Sick To Avoid Ticket
DEERFIELD, Ill. (STMW) -- Claiming your mother is having a medical emergency might seem a way out of a traffic ticket, but not when the officer calls 911 and paramedics discover mom is just fine.
About 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, 67-year-old Janet Chencinski was pulled over for talking on her cell phone while driving, according to Deerfield police.
When the officer asked why she was using the phone, Chencinski said "she was talking to her elderly mother who was suffering from heart pain and was very sick," a statement from police said.
The officer asked if it was a medical emergency and Chencinski said it was, and that she had told her mom to call 911. She also asked if she could be released to go to her mother's home.
The officer allowed her to leave with just a verbal warning, but also called the 911 center and gave them the name and address of Chencinski's mother and requested an ambulance be sent there.
The Skokie Fire Dept. ambulance arrived to find that the elder woman was "fine and not suffering any medical emergency," the statement said.
"The mother informed the paramedics that she was never in any need of medical attention and did not speak with her daughter on the telephone that day."
Police then contacted Chencinski, of the 100 block of Avon Road in Northbrook, who turned herself in to Deerfield police. She was charged with using the cell phone while driving, obstructing a police officer, and disorderly conduct for making a false report.
She was released on a $120 bond and will appear in Park City Branch Court on May 6.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)