Man Seen on Prairie Path With Sword, Powdery Substance Mailed to Water Commission

Elmhurst police encourage residents to report anything strange they might see around town. Following are some of these suspicious incidents, reported over the weekend and on Monday.

A white man driving a gold sedan stopped at Cottage Hill and Church and asked girls walking westbound on Church to place their bags in the back of his car at 6:19 p.m. May 17. The girls ignored him and ran to a friend's grandparents' house.

At around 4:15 p.m. May 17, a skinny white man in his late teens or early 20s with blonde or red spiky hair was in his black van, backed in near the dumpsters at Bryan Middle School, 110 W. Butterfield Road. A victim and his friends were riding by on their bicycles when the suspect asked them if they wanted some ice cream. They continued to ride home, ignoring the man.

A witness told police that he and his friends saw a white man, about 50 to 60 years old with gray hair, walking down the Prairie Path carrying what appeared to be a Samuri sword on his side at 9:54 p.m. May 18.

A woman received a letter addressed to a former DuPage Water Commission chairman at 600 E. Butterfield Road on May 18. The letter contained a granular substance and did not have a return address. The FBI was called to the scene and determined there was no immediate danger or threat. The letter was taken into evidence.

A resident of the 800 block of South Mitchell told police that her neighbor was taking pictures of her children from his front window at 6:49 p.m. May 20. She reported the same neighbor to police last year for videotaping her children while they were playing in the front yard. The incident is under investigation.