A Cook County Circuit judge reportedly got a little vigilante on a couple of men he found rummaging through his wife's car Thursday night.
Judge Nicholas Ford, known around the courthouse as "Quick Nick" for his tough sentences, noticed people in his wife's car that didn't belong there when he went outside his house at about 9:45 p.m.
ChicagoBreakingNews.com tells the story well:
After he yelled at the intruders, Ford said the two men bolted from the vehicle in opposite directions, with Ford taking off after one of them and tackling him in the 3800 block of North Leavitt Street.
"I had him down on the ground, saying, 'I'm a judge! Just lay down, we're going to wait for the police,' " Ford, 44, said Friday morning.
The suspect continued to struggle, however, elbowing Ford in the head and neck and knocking the judge off him, Ford said.
As the suspect ran again, the judge gave chase while yelling to neighbors to call police.
"I was thinking, 'I'm not gonna catch this guy,' [but] I started gaining ground on him," the judge said.
Ford again caught up to the 21-year-old suspect another block or two away, in front of his barber's house, as it turned out, and a couple of neighbors helped hold the suspect until Chicago police officers arrived.
In the meantime, the other suspect was seen running on Addison Street and arrested by responding officers. Ford later identified him as the second man in his wife's car.
This morning, hoarse from screaming, his hand swollen to twice its normal size and his neck "pretty screwed up," Ford said he was thankful to the responding officers and his neighbors for helping him.
"I'm just fortunate to have been able to do it," Ford said, noting the suspect he had chased down was 23 years his junior. "When I got home, I told my wife, 'Miracles happen every day.' "
He said his wife, also a Cook County judge, found some loose change and other items were missing from her car. Police said charges were pending against the two suspects.
We're betting that Ford would love to see this pair in his courtroom.
