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Man Discovers Car Booted, Attacks Parking Attendant With Hammer, Police Say

By Erin Meyer | April 6, 2013 8:40am
 Marcus Forman, 41, is accused of pepper spraying and pummeling a parking attendant who booted his car in Rogers Park.
Marcus Forman, 41, is accused of pepper spraying and pummeling a parking attendant who booted his car in Rogers Park.
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Chicago Police Department

COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A University of Chicago alum allegedly lost it on a parking attendant after discovering a boot on his car, and beat the attendant with the wooden end of a hammer.

Marcus Forman, 41, parked Wednesday in a private parking lot outside Spin Cycle Laundromat, 6725 N. Clark St., in Rogers Park with no intention to wash his dirty clothes.

Prosecutors said he went to a nearby liquor store. By the time Foreman emerged, his car had been booted.

Neither prosecutors nor court records offered insights about the ensuing "altercation" between Forman and the parking attendant who had immobilized his ride.

But the argument escalated, and Forman allegedly doused the parking attendant with pepper spray, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said. He kicked the parking attendant and then started hitting him in the back with the hammer's wooden handle of a hammer.

Forman then allegedly tried to use the hammer to pry the parking boot from his tier, prosecutors said. When his efforts failed, Forman and his wife fled on foot.

Joe Grillo, a co-owner of Global Parking, which offers contract parking services to private property owners around the city, said that while it's common for get mad and complain when they find their cars booted, violence is "very rare."

"I do feel bad for my attendant," he said, adding that the 29-year-old employee was not seriously hurt. "It's similar to a meter maid ... unfortunately people are aggravated, (and the attendants) do have to deal with obscenities."

Global Parking arms parking attendants with recording equipment and installs security cameras in many of the parking lots and facilities where they work.

"It makes people think more than twice," he said. "And what can you really do? We have your vehicle. Acting violent is not going to get you anywhere."

Foreman, of the 1400 block of West Albion, later turned himself in to police and was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and criminal damage to property for damage to the parking boot.

During his bond hearing Friday, a public defender said Forman is a graduate of the University of Chicago and works at a local motel.

Cook County Judge Laura Sullivan set Forman's bond at $125,000.