WICKER PARK — A homeless man, who eschewed a shelter because there were "a lot of strange people" there, is suffering the effects of his alternative sleeping choice: under a truck in the Wicker Park neighborhood.
Andrzej Borzjke, 63, said his face, hip and shoulder were injured when he was run over by the truck Monday morning near Blackhawk Street and Ashland Avenue.
"The truck was parked the whole time, it did not look like it was going anywhere," Borzjke said, adding that he had been sleeping under the parked truck for three weeks.
Alisa Hauser says someone called police just minutes before the man was run over:
Borzjke, who was bandaged while walking down Milwaukee Avenue earlier this week, said he received several stitches above his right eye and was suffering from a "very sore" hip and shoulder.
Borzjke said he chose to sleep under the truck after being displaced from Walsh Park at 1722 N. Ashland Ave., which is closed due to construction for The 606 project.
Borzjke said the truck's unidentified driver called for an ambulance and told him to "find a different sleeping spot."
On Wednesday, Larry Langford, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman, confirmed two calls were received by officials from the scene of the incident, 1316 N. Ashland Ave.
Langford said the first call came at 6:42 a.m. Monday for "man sleeping under truck" and that a second call came at 7:06 a.m. Monday requesting an ambulance transport for the man.
Langford said police from Shakespeare District Beat 1471 responded to the calls. Langford was not immediately able to confirm who placed the calls.
Borzjke said that while he was sleeping, he was also robbed of his wallet containing his LINK card and driver's license but no cash.
Originally from Krakow, Poland, Borzjke moved to Chicago eight years ago, leaving his brother in Poland, where the two ran a nightclub.
Borzjke, who said he has a son living in Italy, came to Chicago "to be happy." After stints working as a caregiver for four years and a limo driver for one year, he was laid off and lost his apartment three years ago, he said.
When asked why he sleeps outside rather than in a homeless shelter, Borzjke said, "I hate shelters and prefer the street. The shelters have a lot of strange people and [on] the street I am free, you know."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
