CHICAGO — Jessica Loor thought the city's 2011 vehicle sticker design competition would be a great experience for her son, Herbert Pulgar, who was 15 at the time.
"Herbie" was always into art, Loor said, adding that he has several mood disorders and used art as an outlet. "I told him, 'Once you do it, you can open a lot of doors.'"
But excitement turned to fear when Pulgar's design was chosen to be on Chicago's city vehicle stickers in 2011 — only to be pulled days before the stickers were printed due to fears it depicted gang symbols.
Since then, Loor said her son has been targeted by gangbangers because the sticker incident publicly labeled him as a gang member. She's afraid they'll murder her son.
Now 18, Pulgar is in hot water once again after police pulled him over in a stolen van Tuesday morning.
Pulgar was stopped in a Chevrolet Astro van around 3:40 a.m. in the 2800 block of North Kedzie Avenue, according to police. The van had no headlights on and matched the description for a stolen vehicle, according to the arrest report.
As police followed, the van tried to elude officers and ended up crashing into parked cars, Assistant State's Attorney Erin Antonietti said during a bond hearing Wednesday.
When police pulled over the van, Pulgar, of the 3100 block of West Logan Boulevard, tried to run away but was caught a short time later.
Pulgar was charged with possession of a stolen motor vehicle, and cited for speeding, driving without headlights, driving without a valid driver's license and going the wrong way on a one-way street.
Neither police nor prosecutors said that Pulgar was gang-affiliated.
After court Wednesday, Loor said her son was a passenger in the van — not the driver. An arrest report states that two people exited the van, but Loor said only her son was charged. Locals told her a 13-year-old boy from the neighborhood was behind the wheel, Loor said.
Her son had left home about 3 a.m. that day following an argument, according to Loor. She had told her son he needed to pick better friends.
"You can't be getting into any trouble," she remembers saying. "Then you'll be on the news again."
"Since that city sticker scandal, [police] were waiting for him to turn 18," she continued. "They were waiting to get him."
Loor claims police have harassed her son and family since the sticker incident, and that her family has been threatened by gang members.
"Now that gangbangers think he's [part of a rival gang], they're after him," Loor said, adding that her son isn't in a gang but knows gang members because he's spent his whole life in Logan Square.
"He grew up with all the gangbangers in the neighborhood because we live here," Loor said.
Loor said she won't let her son go outside anymore, and that he no longer draws and is often afraid to walk around alone. People have pointed him out in passing, saying, "Here's that city sticker kid," she said.
Relatives outside the courtroom described Loor as a "regular kid."
"He's had some problems, sure," said an uncle who didn't want to be named. "But God forbid he end up in the news a couple years from now because he was shot and killed. ... These kids out there don't talk with words. They shoot you."
Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered Pulgar released on his own recognizance Wednesday, so long as the Cook County Sheriff approves him for electronic monitoring.
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