Elgin Teen Charged With Using Stranger's Apartment As Cooling Center
ELGIN, Ill. (CBS) -- When extreme heat sets in, Chicago and many other municipalities advise the public that they can go to any number of officially designated cooling centers, or use any public library, park facility or police station for the same purpose.
Needless to say, strangers' apartments are never on that list of acceptable cooling centers. But that didn't stop an Elgin teen from traipsing into one and hanging out in air-conditioned comfort.
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A woman told police she had left her apartment in the 200 block of Jefferson Avenue in Elgin unlocked as she spent time at a neighbor's apartment around on Tuesday. But when she came home about half an hour later, she found a teenager she'd never met sitting in her apartment listening to music.
The young man claimed he had just walked into the wrong apartment by mistake. But the woman did not buy it, and called 911 to report that she had surprised a burglar.
Police said they caught the man walking nearby, and identified him as Curtis Cathey, 18, of the 600 block of Brook Street in Elgin.
Cathey told police he had been extremely uncomfortable in the 99-degree weather on Tuesday, so he elected to walk into the first air-conditioned apartment he could find just to cool off.
Cathey was charged with criminal trespass.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
