Police Put The Brakes On The Infamous ‘Boot Bandit’

There is already plenty of sketchiness going on in the Windy City without scumbags like this running around pulling scams on innocent motorists, and luckily the authorities have been able to track down this guy, known as the “Boot Bandit” and arrest him.

The scam is a bold but simple racket: the Boot Bandit would wait for a car to park, the slap the boot on the vehicle and wait for the owner to return.  Upon their return, the Bandit, whose real name is James Chard, would demand immediate cash payment to have the boot removed, even though he had no contracts or even permission to be booting vehicles on the streets or in parking lots.

However, Illinois has no legislation making the act of booting a car illegal, presumably due to the fact that the cops are usually the only ones that do any booting. However, the scam itself is illegal and led to Chard being arrested. The victims were all understandably upset and being taken for their hard working money, but hopefully having Chard behind bars will prevent this from happening again. The victims are numerous and reach well beyond the Chicago city limits, spreading like a cancer to the suburbs, including Forest Park, Mattson, and Joliet, where the NHRA’s Route 66 Raceway resides.

We can only hope nobody sees a sudden vacuum in the market for beating citizens out of their money as an opportunity to step in and take over doing the same thing. If you need money that bad, get a real job and earn it! Hopefully this will put and end to the Boot Bandit and his ridiculous scam once and for all!!